Alice Scott traveled to Little Crescent Island to pitch a memoir collaboration to the reclusive heiress Margaret Grace Ives, only to find herself in direct competition with Pulitzer-winning biographer Hayden Anderson. After a tense start that included run-ins at local spots, a hotel fire alarm, and a wary détente, Margaret proposed a monthlong paid trial with both writers under NDAs. Alice and Hayden became neighbors, negotiated alternating interview days, and, despite their rivalry, developed a growing attraction that they tried to compartmentalize.

As Alice’s interviews began, Margaret insisted on starting with the Ives origin: Lawrence Richard Ives rose from poverty through mining and ruthless choices, betraying partner Thomas Dougherty and pivoting into newspapers by buying the San Francisco Daily Dispatch. His son Gerald Rupert Ives transformed the family into a media empire, married Rosalind Goodlett, and later fell into a volatile Hollywood life with actress Nina Gill. Gerald’s grief and rage fueled expansion and hedonism until Nina’s illness, after which he moved family back into his orbit, doted on niece Ruth, and shaped an image of the “House of Ives.”

Margaret revealed private family records and a crucial secret: Ruth “LP” Allen was the hidden daughter of Gerald and Nina, raised as a niece to avoid scandal. She traced her parents’ knotty story—Frederick “Freddy” Ives’s jealousy and awakening when director Doris “Bernie” Bernhardt confronted the studio’s exploitation, their courtship, marriage, and the births of Margaret and Laura. The family’s warmth dimmed as her parents fought, and after Ruth died in a 1954 plane crash en route to Margaret’s sixteenth birthday and Gerald later suffered a debilitating stroke, Laura withdrew to tend their grandfather while Margaret learned to command attention to shield her sister.

In 1958, Margaret secretly took Laura to a Cosmo Sinclair concert to give her a night of joy; a crowd surge injured Laura, and during their return they learned Gerald had died. The press vilified the sisters and Cosmo, but the next day he came to apologize; Margaret spent a single night with him, then saved his tender letters without replying. Years later, they locked eyes on a red carpet, rekindled their connection, and, with Laura’s tacit blessing, fell swiftly in love and married in a paparazzi-tailed courthouse ceremony before fleeing for a monthlong honeymoon. On returning, they discovered Laura had left for Dr. David Ryan Atwood’s New Mexico center and requested no contact, drawing the family into years of worry, quiet PI checks, and strain on Margaret and Cosmo’s marriage as fame turned hostile.

When an extortion demand arrived in Laura’s hand, Margaret arranged a face-to-face payoff; Laura, frail and frightened, slipped Margaret a date, time, and location for a weapons shipment tied to Atwood’s People’s Moment. The FBI raid brought deaths and arrests, Laura’s rescue from chemical coercion, and months of painstaking recovery that Margaret and Cosmo oversaw in Nashville. As Cosmo’s stardom waned and he faced derision, Margaret’s hope of pregnancy rose and fell, and tabloid surveillance intensified. A sudden medical emergency sent them racing to a hospital under paparazzi pursuit; a truck hit their car, and Cosmo died after surgery while Margaret’s crisis proved to be appendicitis.

Crushed by grief and shame, Margaret withdrew from public life, leaned on family doctor Cecil Willoughby, and severed ties with Laura as both avoided the spotlight. In 1967, in the wake of Cosmo’s death and relentless scrutiny, Margaret carried a secret pregnancy; Cecil concealed the gestation and arranged an adoption for the baby girl she named Nicollet. Decades later, Jodi—Laura and Cecil’s daughter—sought Margaret out when Laura fell ill, but Margaret, convinced her notoriety only harmed those she loved, burned family journals and kept living quietly. On the island years after, locals knew her as “Irene,” and she made sea-glass mosaics while testing Alice and Hayden for a book that would demand truth.

Through the trial month, Alice and Hayden’s bond deepened—sharing late-night diners, a protective storm visit that led to intimacy, and deliberate boundaries around their competition—while Alice’s interviews moved toward Margaret’s “greatest mistakes.” Alice uncovered that Captain Cecil Wainwright was Dr. Cecil Willoughby and pressed Margaret, who agreed to continue her story. After the final crash chapter and aftermath, Alice noticed that her “Nicollet” mosaic matched Hayden’s mother’s unusual name and adoption year. Confronting Margaret, Alice learned that the supposed competition had been orchestrated largely to draw Hayden close; Margaret refused to reveal the truth to him, and Alice rejected a partial memoir and walked away.

Shattered, Alice ended things with Hayden without explanation and returned to her mother’s home, where shared work, recorded family stories, and grief for her father brought reconciliation. Alice wrote Margaret urging her to tell the truth and advocating for Hayden. Weeks later, Hayden arrived with Alice’s forwarded letter and Margaret’s explanation; Alice and Hayden confessed their love, chose each other, and planned a future in Georgia. In the aftermath, Alice, Hayden, and Alice’s mother regularly visited Margaret, who slowed physically but kept making mosaics; careful, private steps opened a path between Margaret and Nicollet. Alice and Hayden’s coauthored book found success, they built a home together, and their daughter, Laura Grace Anderson-Scott, was born. Embracing the labyrinthine path from curse and spectacle to care and connection, Alice began writing the full truth for her daughter—a great big beautiful life made from broken pieces remade with love.