The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Groff, Lauren. The Monsters of Templeton. New York: Hyperion, 2008.

The novel is preceded by a brief author’s note. Some of the novel’s characters are based on characters created by American writer. James Fenimore Cooper. The town of Templeton, New York is based on the town of Cooperstown, New York. The novel opens in the present day. Wilhelmina “Willie” Upton is a 28-year-old archaeology graduate student at Stanford University. She had an affair with a married professor named Primus Dwyer, which led to an altercation between Dwyer’s wife and Willie. Willie was placed on academic leave. She has returned to her hometown of Templeton, New York to wait and see whether she will be expelled from her graduate program.

Willie was raised by her single mother, Vivienne. Vivienne was sexually liberal when she was younger, and she told Willie that she did not know the identity of Willie’s father. However, after Willie returns home, Vivienne says that she actually does know the identity of Willie’s father, and that it is a man in Templeton. Vivienne does not tell Willie the identity of the man, but she does give Willie a hint: Willie knows that she is descended from Templeton’s founder—Marmaduke Temple—through two lines of ancestry, but Willie’s connection to her father gives her a third even more obscure family link to Marmaduke. To discover her father’s identity, Willie begins researching her genealogy and Templeton’s history.

As Willie begins her research, the novel often flashes back to earlier times in Templeton’s history. Sometimes, these flashbacks are direct transcriptions of historical documents that Willie finds, such as diary entries and letters. Sometimes, these flashbacks are memories of now-deceased Templeton residents, and Willie does not have access to those memories. Templeton was founded in the late 1700s by Marmaduke Temple. He is still revered by many people in the town, even though it has become clear that he was deeply flawed. Willie’s research, along with previously completed research, shows that Marmaduke Temple owned slaves. One of Willie’s previously known lines of ancestry to Marmaduke is based on the fact that Marmaduke forced one of his slaves—a woman named Hetty—into a sexual relationship with him.

Marmaduke also had a violent and aggressive attitude towards Native Americans, and he sometimes employed measures to drive them away from Templeton. Much of Willie’s research leads to dead ends in terms of discovering her father’s identity. She reads the diary entries of her great-grandmother, Sarah Temple, who was smart and idealistic, but who was doomed by patriarchal social structures and mental illness. Willies reads letters written between Charlotte Temple and Cinnamon Averell—two women from whom Willie is descended, but who did not know of their own familial connection. Charlotte and Cinnamon lived in Templeton in the mid-1800s and both struggled with matters of love, marriage, and the expected societal roles of women. They also both harbored dark secrets.

Willie begins to research Richard and Jacob Temple—Marmaduke’s sons—and while their sibling relationship was fascinating in its tension and drama, they are ultimate irrelevant to Willie’s search. Willie has a breakthrough when she learns the little-known fact that Marmaduke’s cause of death was actually murder. She believes that Marmaduke may have had a second extramarital affair. However, Willie’s research stalls momentarily, until the ghost of Hetty reveals a secret document hidden in Willie’s childhood home. The document provides strong evidence that Marmaduke had an affair with a specific Native American woman in town. Willie is then able to use this information to confirm that her father is a local man named Solomon Falconer. Willie tells Solomon this information. Fortunately, Willie and Solomon already have a relationship similar to that of a father and daughter, and Solomon is excited to learn of their biological connection.

During Willie’s research efforts, she also manages personal problems such as some interpersonal friction between herself and her mother, the illness of Willie’s friend Clarissa, and the uncertainty of her place at her graduate program. She also receives help, companionship, and guidance from various people in Templeton, both regarding her research and her other problems. Eventually, she manages to resolve her various problems and return to graduate school.