The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Walsh, Rosie. The Love of My Life. Viking, 2022.

Rosie Walsh’s novel contains three parts. Part 1 follows Emma and Leo, a married couple, as they struggle to maintain their deteriorating relationship because Emma is harboring a secret. Told in first person, it alternates between Emma’s and Leo’s points of view, including flashbacks. Part 2 discloses Emma’s past. Emma (known as Emily before she changes her name) and Janice Rothschild, a face from Emma’s past, alternate narrating the chapters. Emily and Janice both narrate the story in the first person. Emily narrates in the past tense, while Janice narrates in the form of present-tense diary entries. Part 3 returns to the present, and incorporates Emma, Leo, and Janice as narrators. It follows the consequences of Emma’s actions, concluding multiple storylines. Emma and Leo tell their stories in the first person, while Janice writes in diary entries.

Walsh makes use of flashbacks and tells much of the story out of chronological order. This summary outlines events in a more linear fashion.

The story begins with Leo, an obituary writer. He describes the charmed life he shares with Emma, his wife who works as an intertidal ecologist, and Ruby, his three year old daughter. Leo is tasked with writing Emma’s stock obituary as she has just recovered from cancer treatment. As Leo writes her obituary, he discovers information that leads him to believe Emma has been dishonest about her past. As Leo unravels Emma’s lies, Emma admits to readers that she is lying to her husband and mentions a relationship with a male, who remains unnamed, that includes phone calls, text messages, and dinners.

Leo confronts Emma about inconsistencies in her life and Emma gaslights him, dismissing his concerns and telling him he is mistaken. As more details about the disappearance of Janice Rothschild, a famous actress, come to light, Leo finds that his relationship with Emma unravels.

Emma meets Jeremy Rothschild, the undisclosed person with whom she has been communicating, in a clandestine trip to Alnmouth, Northumberland. Jeremy discusses the disappearance of Janice, his wife, with Emma. While Emma is away, Leo digs deeper into Emma’s past, uncovering more inconsistencies in her history.

After prying into Emma’s life in an attempt to discern the truth, Leo finds an unsent message from Emma to Jeremy, citing him as the father of her child. Leo flees his house, seeking support from his coworker, Shiela. Emma and Leo agree to discuss things in person a few days later, but Emma does not appear. Realizing that Emma is missing, Leo calls Jeremy to get more information. Jeremy meets Leo and provides him with much of Emma’s background, concluding Part One.

Part 2 takes place twenty years earlier. Emily (who changed her name to Emma after college), found herself pregnant as the result of a one night stand. Unable to get in touch with the father, Emily called Jeremy, who was also at the bar the night she became pregnant. Jeremy offered to adopt the baby as his wife, Janice, could not get pregnant. Emily agreed and became friends with Janice. After suffering what she believed to be a miscarriage, Emily changed her mind and decided to keep the baby.

After delivery, Emily developed severe postpartum psychosis and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Janice walked in on Emily attempting to smother her baby, Charlie, with a pillow. Emily was distraught at her actions and asked Janice to adopt Charlie. Emily had difficulty processing her grief and trauma over the next year. She spied on the Rothschilds at their house and the park to get a glimpse of Charlie. After Janice accused her of kidnapping, she got a restraining order against Emily.

Emily graduated from college, changed her name, and met Leo, closing out Part 2.

In Part 3, Emma and Leo return to the present. Jill, Emma’s best friend from college, has taken Emma to her house in order to meet Charlie, her now-adult son. Charlie asks Emma for information regarding the disappearance of his adoptive mother, Janice. Leo shows up afterwards and brings Emma home, where Charlie and Jeremy meet them. Charlie tells Emma that he read his mother’s journals and discovered that Janice fabricated the story about Emma smothering Charlie. Emma had been playing peek-a-boo with him. Once Charlie had confronted Janice about this, she disappeared.

Emma and Charlie go to Almouth in an attempt to find Janice, as Charlie is concerned that his mother will end her life. They find Janice, despondent about her relationship with both Emma and Charlie, in a confused state and surrounded by empty bottles of paracetamol, confirming Charlie’s suspicion. Leo arrives with Ruby and calls an ambulance for Janice, keeping Emma outside so that Ruby and the emergency responses can see Emma is not involved in the overdose.

Leo and Emma discuss Emma’s past and Leo displays empathy for what Emma has endured. They realize that they were not married legally as Emma changed her name. Choosing love, empathy, and his family, Leo asks Emma to marry him again.

In the Epilogue, Emma and Leo enjoy their family routines together. Emma is relieved that Leo brought her past out into the open and loves him even more. Charlie texts Emma, who now has a relationship with both of her biological children. Emma closes out the novel by calling both Ruby and Charlie “the love of her life.”