The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Korelitz, Jean Hanff. The Latecomer. Celadon Books, 2022.

Salo Oppenheimer met his future wife Johanna at his girlfriend’s funeral. Salo feels as though he killed his girlfriend, Mandy, because he was the one driving when the accident happened. Johanna made it her life’s mission to make Salo happy. They buy a house in Brooklyn.

Johanna and Salo tried to have kids for four years before opting for IVF. Johanna gave birth to triplets Harrison, Lewyn, and Sally. They set aside one of the embryos because giving birth to quadruplets was too dangerous.

Salo runs into Stella at an Outsider Art exhibit. Stella was in the accident with him and Mandy. Stella is obsessed with the painter Achilles Rizzoli. Salo is a passionate art collector and spends most of his time at his warehouse in Red Hook. He and Stella start having an affair.

Salo is largely absent from his children’s lives. The triplets are not close at all. One evening, Sally follows Salo to an art exhibit, where she sees him with Stella. She develops an instant crush on Stella and a lifelong hatred for her father.

Johanna decides to have another child with the extra embryo once she discovers that Salo has a son with Stella. She has Phoebe around the same time the triplets leave for college. Sally and Lewyn go to Cornell, while Harrison attends a two-year college called Roarke.

Sally’s only friend is Rochelle, her roommate. She has a crush on Rochelle and does not tell her she has a brother at Cornell. Lewyn becomes interested in Mormonism through his roommate, Jonas. Harrison hates Roarke's farming chores but enjoys his intellectual discussions with his peers. He is obsessed with one student, Eli, who wrote a book. One evening, Eli accuses their classmate Carlos of plagiarism. Everyone, including Harrison, believes Eli over Carlos. Carlos leaves Roarke shortly after.

Sally falls in love with furniture while visiting the Arts Quad at Cornell. She meets Harriet Greene there: an older woman who works with antiques. She starts helping Harriet clean people’s houses and hunt for furniture. Over spring break, Sally decides to surprise Rochelle with a visit to Rochelle’s home in Ellesmere. Rochelle does not let Sally into her home because her mother is a hoarder.

Lewyn returns home for spring break. Johanna makes him sign a document making him Phoebe’s guardian should anything happen to Johanna. The other triplets are obliged to sign as well. On the bus back to Cornelle, Rochelle sits beside Lewyn. Lewyn falls in love with her instantly. They start dating shortly after. When Rochelle asks Lewyn if he is related to Sally, he lies and says that Oppenheimer is a common surname.

Eli invites Harrison to spend the summer at Hayek: an intellectual retreat. For his talk, Harrison denounces the liberal, progressive education he received growing up. Lewyn and Sally spend the summer in Ithaca. Sally moved in with Harriet after Rochelle announced she was getting a single room. Rochelle tells Lewyn she thinks Sally is in love with her. When Sally and Rochelle get coffee to catch up, Sally invites her friend to Martha’s Vineyard. It is a family tradition for the triplets to celebrate their birthday at the cottage there. Sally plans on exposing Lewyn for keeping his relation to Sally a secret.

Salo spends most of the twin’s birthday at the cottage in his office, planning his divorce. Johanna is exhausted from caring for Phoebe. The boys drive into town for champagne. Lewyn tells Harrison he has a girlfriend and that his girlfriend thinks Sally is lesbian. Lewyn enjoys shocking Harrison with this news. Meanwhile, Sally brings Rochelle from the ferry to the cottage.

Rochelle is confused when she sees Lewyn at the beach. She quickly realizes they are siblings and is outraged that they concealed this from her. Harrison announces that Sally is lesbian. Their parents are shocked. Sally tells Salo he has no authority over her and is a terrible father. Rochelle leaves. That evening, Salo tells Joanna he is leaving her. He boards a plane the following day that crashes into the World Trade Center.

When Phoebe is 17, she comes home one day to find a letter addressed to Johanna from a museum, asking to borrow Johanna’s Rizzoli collection. She shows the letter to Lewyn, who lives in the basement of their family home. Lewyn is an art collector but does not know Rizzoli. He answers Phoebe’s questions about her birth. She is shocked to learn she was born via IVF.

Phoebe visits Sally, who lives in Harriet’s old house in Ithaca and still works with antiques. Sally tells her about the scandal which happened in Martha’s Vineyard. Sally feels awful about everything and is still in therapy because of it. She is happily dating her girlfriend, Paula.

Phoebe visits Harrison, who lives in New York City and works on Fox News with Eli. She shows him the letter from the museum. Harrison explains that he thinks Stella is behind the letter. She wanted the paintings when Salo died, but Johanna refused to give them to her. She promised never to contact the Oppenheimers again in exchange for them letting her live in the house Salo bought her.

Lewyn and Phoebe visit the warehouse in Red Hook but cannot find any Rizzoli paintings. They run into Ephraim, Phoebe’s colleague at summer camp, outside. He brings them home to meet his mom, Stella. Stella hugs Phoebe and Lewyn and tells them about her love for Salo. She explains the significance of the paintings to the start of their romance.

Phoebe seeks legal advice from Rochelle, who works as a lawyer in New York City. Rochelle advises Phoebe to speak to Johanna about the paintings. When Phoebe asks about her personal life, Rochelle explains that she divorced her husband when her mother passed away. Rochelle explains that her mother was a hoarder. Phoebe says she knows someone who can help.

Phoebe and Sally clean Rochelle’s mother’s home. It is an emotional experience for Rochelle. At the end of the three days, Rochelle consents to meet with Lewyn again.

Ephraim publishes an article exposing Eli as a fraud. Eli pretended to be Black most of his life when he is white. Harrison is heartbroken. Harrison, Lewyn, Ephraim, and Sally all get together at the Harvard Club. They tell Harrison they want to support him while he grieves his friend.

Nine months later, Lewyn and Rochelle get married at the family's Martha’s Vineyard cottage. Johanna thanks Phoebe for piecing their family back together. Phoebe leaves for Roarke.