Opening
On her first real day in Florence, Lina Emerson collides with a city of beauty and a past full of secrets. A strained outing with Howard Mercer cracks open a family mystery tied to Lina’s mother, Hadley Emerson, just as Lina’s own life jolts back into motion with new friends, first sparks, and a journal that rewrites everything she thinks she knows.
What Happens
Chapter 6: Pizza and Paul McCartney
The car ride into Florence with Howard is stiff and quiet, but the sight of the Duomo breaks through the awkwardness. Standing with him before the cathedral’s vast dome, Lina listens as he sketches its history and promises her a future tour. The moment softens them both. At a Beatles-soundtracked pizzeria, she’s jolted again—Howard orders in fluent Italian, proof of a life in this city she knows nothing about.
Their conversation warms as Lina shares stories Hadley once told her about Howard. Then he notices the antique ring on her finger—the one he gave Hadley years ago—and the mood freezes. After fumbling through a suggestion that she see a social worker, he distracts them both with pizza. Between bites, he reveals the truth that detonates their uneasy peace: he never knew Hadley was pregnant. Their relationship was “complicated,” and Hadley only contacted him when she first got sick. Reeling, Lina bolts to the bathroom, anger and confusion crashing over her as she starts to question the mother she thought she fully understood.
Chapter 7: I Made the Wrong Choice
Lina lies awake, turning the ring over in her fingers and turning her mother’s choices over in her mind. Why did Hadley wear it every day if things with Howard were broken? Desperate for answers, Lina opens the journal Hadley left behind. On the inside cover, a stark confession waits in black marker: “I made the wrong choice.”
The early entries from May and June introduce a determined, daring Hadley. She drops out of nursing school against her parents’ wishes to attend a six-month photography program at the Fine Arts Academy of Florence, rents a tiny apartment with a chic, chain-smoking roommate named Francesca, and falls headlong for the city. She climbs the Duomo and writes about the view with breathless awe. Hours after her own first glimpse of the cathedral, Lina feels a jolt of connection across time: through this journal, she can experience Florence with her mother. It hurts—and helps. She decides to keep reading, slowly.
Chapter 8: A Well-Rested Hummingbird
Morning brings a steadier Lina and the urge to call her best friend, Addie. A quick, unhelpful chat with Addie’s brother ends just as Howard appears on the porch, ready to pick up last night’s conversation. Lina deflects—she wants a run and more pages from the journal before anything else. Then Howard mentions that Lorenzo “Ren” Ferrara called to invite her to a party. Mistaking Ren for one of the catcalling boys from the cemetery, Howard confesses he grilled him.
The mood shifts: Howard brightens at the chance for Lina to make friends, offers to get her a cell phone, and says the internet is up. Lina FaceTimes Addie, who is thrilled about the party and relentlessly persuasive. By the end of their call, Addie has helped Lina choose an outfit and declares a prophecy: tonight she’ll fall for the hottest boy in Italy.
Chapter 9: The Hottest Boy in All of Italy
Nerves buzzing, Lina waits for Ren, who rolls up on a gleaming red scooter. Howard plays protective gatekeeper, questioning Ren, handing Lina a phone and emergency cash, and telling Ren in Italian to stay close to her. The ride through the night is pure freedom. They arrive at a palatial villa owned by Ren’s friend Elena, a Medici descendant, where a sea of students from the American international school surges around Lina, excited to meet “Carolina.”
Faces blur until a few pop into focus: Marco, a hyper-friendly boy; Mimi, stunning and self-possessed, whose history with Ren hangs in the air. Sensing Lina’s overload, Ren steers her upstairs to a dusty room stuffed with antiques and a balcony over the gardens. They’re not alone. A boy wakes up from a nap on the couch—Thomas, British and impossibly handsome. Chemistry snaps to life between him and Lina in an instant.
Chapter 10: The World’s Most Perfect Cannonball
Time slips by at the pool as Lina and Thomas talk and flirt. He’s lived all over the world, has two older sisters, and slides his arm around her like it belongs there. Lina feels the spark Addie predicted. Ren reappears to enforce curfew, but the crowd insists on tradition first: the school’s initiation jump. Thomas vows to jump with Lina. She launches into a perfect cannonball, explosions of water and adrenaline washing grief from her edges.
Soaked and shivering on the scooter ride home, Lina braces for trouble, but Howard’s porch-light silhouette softens when he sees her happiness. Inside, he’s hosting friends, including Sonia. Someone calls Lina “the photographer’s daughter,” and Howard doesn’t add that she’s his, too. Later, Lina gushes to Addie about Thomas and returns to the journal. Hadley writes about a new circle of friends—including Howard, a “perfect Southern gentleman”—and about falling wildly in love with a man she calls “X.” Their romance unfolds in secrecy: clubs, the Boboli Gardens, even a midnight bakery. Lina assumes X is Howard. Then, out her window, she catches Howard longboarding down the driveway under the stars. The gentleman and the skater collide in her mind, and the mystery deepens.
Character Development
Lina’s present and Hadley’s past run on parallel tracks that begin to converge, reshaping how Lina sees family, love, and herself.
- Lina: Steps out of isolation—accepts a party invite, flirts, and takes the plunge (literally). The journal ties her to her mother even as it destabilizes her certainty about the past.
- Howard: Reveals depth and contradiction—a gentle guide to Florence, fluent Italian speaker, Beatles fan, awkward quasi-parent, and midnight longboarder—while carrying the ache of not knowing Lina existed.
- Hadley: Emerges as vivid and brave, abandoning a prescribed path to chase art, Florence, and a secret, all-consuming romance that casts a long shadow over Lina’s present.
Themes & Symbols
Secrets and Truth: Secrets and Truth powers the section. Howard’s admission that he never knew about Lina reframes Hadley’s choices, while the journal—especially the name “X”—turns Lina into a detective of her own life. Each revelation peels back an image (the dutiful daughter, the perfect gentleman) to expose something messier and more human.
Grief and Healing: In Grief and Healing, Lina’s cannonball becomes a baptism of sorts, marking her first unguarded joy since loss. The journal is another conduit for healing: hearing Hadley’s voice hurts, but it also gives Lina permission to feel connected rather than only bereft.
Identity and Self-Discovery: Identity and Self-Discovery unfold in tandem for mother and daughter. Hadley abandons a life chosen for her to build one of her own making; Lina, walking the same streets, begins to imagine a self not defined only by loss or by what she has been told.
The Nature of Family: Questions of the nature of family press in. What makes a parent—biology, time, truth-telling, presence? Howard’s awkward care and obvious desire to know Lina complicate simple labels.
Symbols:
- The Duomo: A shared, awe-struck first encounter becomes a bridge across time, binding mother and daughter in the same sacred view.
- The Ring: A tangible relic of a romance that refuses to vanish, pointing Lina toward the love Hadley kept—and the questions she left behind.
Key Quotes
“I made the wrong choice.”
This line on the journal’s inside cover sets the emotional stakes and the central mystery. It frames every page Lina reads as a trail of breadcrumbs toward a decision with consequences that still ripple through her life.
Their relationship was “complicated.”
Howard’s word choice signals adult complexity without spelling it out, forcing Lina (and readers) to sit with ambiguity. It also humanizes both Howard and Hadley, resisting easy villains or saints.
“Tonight you will meet and fall in love with the hottest boy in all of Italy.”
Addie’s playful prophecy primes Lina for openness and turns into a self-fulfilling push toward joy. It underscores friendship as a catalyst for healing, nudging Lina past fear into possibility.
Howard, a “perfect Southern gentleman.”
Hadley’s description contrasts sharply with the awkward, cautious man Lina knows—and the stealthy longboarder she glimpses at night. The phrase crystallizes the gap between public persona and private truth.
“The photographer’s daughter.”
This label reduces Lina to a legacy while quietly excluding Howard from the picture. The omission stings and spotlights the fragile, undefined bond forming between them.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These chapters ignite the novel’s twin engines: Lina’s summer in Florence and Hadley’s past in the same city. The journal makes Hadley a living presence through an epistolary thread, letting the past talk back and creating dramatic irony as Lina learns truths others in the present do not know. The structure turns Lina’s coming-of-age into an investigation—of her origins, her parents’ choices, and the kind of family she wants.
At the same time, Lina’s cannonball, scooter rides, and near-instant chemistry with Thomas mark the first real movement out of grief and into life. The Duomo and the ring bind the timelines; Howard’s confession and contradictions complicate them. Together, these chapters lay the groundwork for a story that is part romance, part mystery, and wholly about forging identity in the space between what we inherit and what we choose.