The following version of the novel was used to create this study guide: Sorell, Gina. The Wise Women. Harper, April 5, 2022. Kindle.

In the novel The Wise Women by Gina Sorell, Clementine was shocked when she learned that her husband, Steve, had betrayed her by taking the money she gave him for a down payment on their house and invesed it in his business instead. Clementine, a freelance media consultant, knew she could not take Steve back after his lie. She faced being a single mother to her special needs son, Jonah. She would lose the house she loved and there was a possibility that Jonah would not be able to attend the school that was offering a pilot program to address Jonah’s needs. To make matters worse, Clementine’s advice columnist mother, Wendy Wise, advised Clementine to take Steve back even though Wendy had divorced her own husband when he cheated on her. Wendy, who had been a single mother herself, struggled to demonstrate to Clementine and her sister, Barb, that she had made mistakes in her life. However, she was present to help her daughters as adults.

Wendy sensed that the twitch in her was a sign that her adult daughters, Barb and Clementine, needed her. Without contacting them first, Wendy made the trip from the luxury senior resort where she lived with her new husband, Harvey, to New York to rescue her daughters. When she arrived, she discovered things were worse than she had expected. Clementine was being evicted from the house that Wendy believed she owned, Barb had returned to her girlfriend, Jill, against Wendy’s advice. Additionally, Steve, Clementine’s husband, had charged thousands of dollars to Clementine’s credit cards on a trip to a Turks and Caicos resort.

Wendy went through the belongings Steve left at Clementine’s house. She found a journal where he listed his ideas for new products, a frequent use card from a coffee shop, and an identification badge from a work co-op place called Let’s Work.

At Let’s Work, Wendy found Steve’s private office where he had pamphlets about the product he had created, vegetable water infused with CBD. She had to admit that he had a good idea, even though she still wanted to hurt him for Clementine’s sake. Wendy was interrupted by a private investigator hired by a big law firm to investigate Steve’s product. It was suspected that Steve was trying to scam people into investing in a product that did not really exist.

Meanwhile, Wendy had met Samantha Love, an Instagram star who had made her fame with her own brand of organic lip balm. Samantha had mentioned to Wendy that she was on her way to a conference in Turks and Caicos. When Wendy put together the information she was receiving from Samantha’s Instagram posts with Steve’s charges to Turks and Caicos, she realized that Steve had made the trip to pitch his CBD-infused vegetable water to Samantha. Samantha was promising to choose one product introduced to her at the conference and give it her backing.

At the conference, when Samantha made the announcement, she went off script from what her fiancé and manager told her to say and admitted she had to follow her heart and back Steve's product. It turned out that Todd had betrayed Samantha and promised Steve’s idea to Sunny Day, another influencer. Wendy contacted Harvey, who worked with a lawyer to see what could be done about the situation.

At Harvey’s direction, Steve and Samantha put a video on YouTube in which Steve admitted his venture was not fully funded though he had made it appear it was. Samantha confirmed that she liked Steve’s product best though she thought fruit-flavored water would be better than vegetable-flavored water. It was insinuated in the video that Samantha intended to be the spokesperson for Steve’s product.

When Steve returned to New York, he told Clementine he knew that they would not be able to repair their relationship. He promised to be a better father to Jonah, their son, and began paying Clementine back for the stolen money.

Clementine was able to borrow money from Barb, her sister, to buy the house she originally had believed she owned. She and Barb arranged with the city to allow her to build a tiny house in the backyard where she lived with her son. She rented the main house to cover the mortgage.