Opening
On December 15, food blogger Hollis Shaw watches her perfect Wellesley life fracture: a marital argument spirals, her husband Matthew Madden walks out for a work trip, and a few hours later he is dead. Grief crashes into guilt, and Hollis—alienated from her daughter and adrift—bets everything on a daring idea: a “Five-Star Weekend” that reunites friends from every era of her life to help her heal.
What Happens
Chapter 1: Accident Report I
It’s December 15, and Hollis stages an ideal holiday tableau while bracing for Matthew’s flight to Germany. Their conversation turns brittle, then brutal, as they confront their drifting marriage; Matthew’s last words land like a verdict: “You’ve changed. And we’ve changed,” crystallizing the theme of The Nature of Love and Marriage. Shaken, Hollis calls and texts apologies he never answers. Restless and ashamed, she searches for her high school boyfriend Jack Finigan on Facebook—an impulse that nods to Past vs. Present.
A police officer arrives with the unthinkable: Matthew has swerved to avoid deer on a snowy road and died. Time jolts forward into raw aftermath and Grief, Loss, and Healing. Hollis’s bond with her daughter Caroline Shaw-Madden frays; Caroline accuses her of performative mourning and narcissism, laying bare Mother-Daughter Relationships. In the silence that follows, Hollis confides in an online fan, Gigi Ling, admitting the secret that haunts her: the fight made Matthew late, so she feels responsible—an entry point to Secrets, Deception, and Truth.
Months pass. Gigi stops responding. Caroline refuses to spend summer with her. Hollis retreats to First Light, her Nantucket home, where summer memories of Matthew sharpen loss. One insomniac scroll later, she discovers an article about a widow who hosted a “Five-Star Weekend”—gathering one best friend from each life stage—and seizes on it as her last, best plan to crawl toward daylight.
Chapter 2: The Invitation
Hollis acts. She texts four women from four eras. “Prime-of-life” friend Brooke Kirtley replies with effusive yeses. College bestie Dru-Ann Jones, a formidable sports agent, balks but ultimately honors an old promise. Hollis anticipates sparks: Brooke’s exuberance reliably grates on Dru-Ann’s steel, a preview of Friendship and Its Evolution.
Childhood friend Tatum McKenzie answers with a clipped affirmative that hums with distance. Hollis recalls Tatum’s passive-aggressive jab about the Nantucket class divide—Tatum’s year-round grind versus Hollis’s “Summer Person” ease—hinting at long-stewing resentment. Finally, Hollis invites Gigi, despite the sudden silence after her confession. To Hollis’s relief, Gigi accepts the next morning. With all four women confirmed, hope and dread settle side by side.
Chapter 3: Chink in the Armor
The lens shifts to Caroline in New York. Her affair with boss Isaac Opoku—a famous documentarian who comforted her after Matthew’s death—ends as his supermodel girlfriend, Sofia, returns. Hurt and broke, Caroline gets Hollis’s text about Nantucket and, despite their estrangement, calls to hear her mother’s voice. Hollis offers $2,500 if Caroline will film the weekend, and Caroline—skeptical but desperate—accepts. When she learns Gigi is an unvetted internet “friend,” alarm bells blare, underscoring Authenticity vs. Public Persona.
The next day, Caroline pitches the project to Isaac as a “funny little” job. He lends her high-end gear and a guiding principle: “Look for a chink in the armor… where you can penetrate the surface and discover a hidden truth.” Caroline scoffs at the idea that middle-aged women at a beach house could yield cinematic revelation, packs the camera, tripod, and drone, and heads out, sure she’s embarking on a purely transactional gig.
Chapter 4: First Light I
Back on Nantucket, Hollis readies First Light, the dream house she and Matthew built: sea glass in the windows, a guesthouse called “the Twist,” every detail a reminder of their shared taste and vanished future. The home is both shrine and battleground where grief and memory collide. Hollis assigns rooms with precision—Dru-Ann gets the detached guesthouse for space; the others anchor the main house—and clings to the hope that Caroline’s presence might soften their rift.
For the first time in months, Hollis logs into “Hungry with Hollis.” She thanks her community and announces the Five-Star Weekend, a tentative reentry into public life that doubles as a private vow: she will try to live again.
Chapter 5: Errands
On-island, Tatum runs errands and spots Hollis in the grocery store—then dodges her, anxiety spiking. She juggles long hours at a high-end cleaning service and the island’s class divide while waiting on a breast biopsy result. Her fear is rooted in memory: her mother’s rapid, agonizing death from breast cancer, a weighty echo of The Influence of the Past.
In a mischievous throwback to their girlhood, Tatum slips Hollis’s unlocked car keys under the seat, then runs into her at the dry cleaner. Their exchange is awkward and tender: Tatum apologizes for her silence after Matthew’s death; Hollis shares the weekend’s guest list. Tatum stiffens at Dru-Ann’s name—something went down at Hollis’s wedding. But when Hollis calmly retrieves her deceased husband’s dry cleaning, Tatum’s irritation softens into respect. As she leaves, the hospital calls. Tatum can’t bear to answer. With dread rising, she fixates on a petty plan—maybe a bit of payback for Dru-Ann will distract her until the truth lands.
Character Development
Grief exposes fault lines and forges new roles. Each protagonist steps toward the weekend carrying a private burden that will shape how they collide.
- Hollis: Perfectionist hostess turned widow, she is immobilized by guilt yet channels control into orchestrating the Five-Star Weekend as a lifeline back to herself.
- Caroline: Angry, protective, and broke, she weaponizes detachment—then agrees to film the weekend, positioning herself as observer and judge while secretly craving connection.
- Tatum: Wounded by history and status divides, she masks terror about her biopsy with sardonic distance and a prankster streak, still tethered to the girl she was with Hollis.
Themes & Symbols
Loss resets every relationship. [Grief, Loss, and Healing] drives the plot from the first page: Matthew’s death exposes fractures in marriage, friendship, and family, and the Five-Star Weekend becomes an experiment in whether structured intimacy can repair what catastrophe shattered. That structure also forces [Friendship and Its Evolution] to the surface, confronting time, class, and temperament—Brooke’s buoyancy against Dru-Ann’s armor, Tatum’s wariness against Hollis’s orchestrated warmth.
Secrets sit under every scene. Hollis hides her final-fight guilt; Caroline hides an affair and her contempt for her mother’s brand; Tatum hides a life-altering fear; Gigi arrives as an enigma. The camera’s directive to find a “chink in the armor” promises that revelations will puncture curated images, challenging [Authenticity vs. Public Persona]. First Light—beautiful, curated, memory-laden—stands as a symbol of the life Hollis built and must now reimagine, a house that might either entomb grief or host its transformation.
Key Quotes
“You’ve changed. And we’ve changed.”
Matthew’s parting words distill marital drift into a hard truth and trigger Hollis’s spiral of guilt. The line frames the book’s inquiry into the elasticity of commitment and the danger of assuming permanence in love.
“Look for a chink in the armor… where you can penetrate the surface and discover a hidden truth.”
Isaac’s advice arms Caroline—and the reader—with a method. It anticipates the weekend’s structure: polished exteriors will crack, and the truths that leak out will redefine each woman’s story.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
These opening chapters set the stakes: a sudden death ignites a social experiment that gathers mismatched versions of Hollis’s past into one charged space. Multiple perspectives build dramatic irony—readers know Caroline’s bitterness, Tatum’s fear, and Hollis’s guilt long before the women face each other—so every invitation, room assignment, and camera angle carries tension. The Five-Star Weekend promises not nostalgia but collision, where hidden histories, loyalties, and lies must surface if anyone is going to heal.