The following version of this novel was used in the creation of this study guide: Marsh, Katherine. The Lost Year. Roaring Brook Press. 2023. First Edition. Hardcover.

In the year 2020, a young boy named Matthew lives through the Covid-19 pandemic with his mother and great-grandmother Nadiya (who goes by the name GG). After he is grounded from his Switch, Matthew reluctantly agrees to help GG unpack the boxes she brought from the nursing home. Inside, he finds countless documents about GG, Helen, and her cousin Mila who lived during the 1933 Ukrainian famine. While GG is reluctant to tell him about it, Matthew eventually convinces her to share what she can with him, leading to the other two narratives. Between their stories, Matthew must reconcile with his mother, understand his loneliness, and find hope for a future beyond the pandemic.

The rest of the novel focuses on the story of Helen and Mila, starting in 1932. Both characters' stories are told in tandem with each other, going back and forth between chapters and interludes with Matthew. For simplicity, this summary will focus on each story separate from the other, while the section summaries will establish the full timeline.

First, Helen, a Ukrainian refugee living with her father, mother, and brother Peter in Brooklyn, New York. At first, Helen is desperate to fit in at her American school, even using her American name (Helen) rather than her Ukranian one (Yelena). This causes many arguments between herself and her strict father, as she feels he is smothering her. However, her perspective changes when her father suffers a heart attack. When trying to help him, Helen learns that he is working with a lawyer to try and save his family from the Ukraine famine without much success.

Then, when the New York Times claims that there is no famine, Helen and her new friend, Ruth, work together to gather stories to prove the writer wrong. Eventually, the New York Times responds by thanking Helen for her work, but saying that they cannot accept her stories because they are all secondhand. This angers Helen, and she hopes that her father and their lawyer can track down Nadiya, Helen’s cousin and the only one in the family who they know is still alive.

During this time, a young Mila lives with her father and caretaker, Dasha, in Kyiv, Ukraine. Raised as a staunch communist, Mila has been taught that the kulaks (the name for the peasants from the countryside) are responsible for everything going wrong in the country. However, when her starving cousin Nadiya arrives, Mila’s father turns her away, calling Nadiya an enemy, which confuses Mila. On her own, Mila tracks down Nadiya and learns that she is telling the truth; Mila’s father is a kulak who left his family behind because they did not believe in the communist revolution. Nadiya also explains the reality of the famine, and Mila feels deep guilt for not believing her or questioning her father.

However, Nadiya and Anna- the woman Mila took Nadiya to after finding her on the street- are removed from their home. Then, Mila’s father is denounced as a kulak and arrested by the same party he has been working with and fighting for most of his life. Mila realizes that it is Dasha who betrayed them to try and get rations for her own family. While Mila understands where Dasha is coming from, she calls her out for not realizing how much Mila was changing and leaves Dasha with the guilt and knowledge that Mila may die. This almost happens when Mila and Nadiya are reunited at the children’s home called the Collector and contract Typhus. Since Mila is better fed and healthier than Nadiya, Mila survives, but Nadiya passes away. Mila is brokenhearted. However, when Helen’s father arrives to take “Nadiya” to America, Mila pretends to be Nadiya herself and escapes the USSR. However, she refuses to tell Helen or anyone else the truth, effectively killing ‘Mila’ that day.

As GG finishes her story, Matthew decides to write it all down and hopes to publish it sometime in the future. GG dies in peace, relieved that the truth has been passed on and she, Helen, and Nadiya will not be forgotten.