Chapter 18 Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

In this chapter, Riki pulls the narrator aside and leads her up to the turret room without explanation. Once inside, she produces a small green glass bottle with a rotting cork and insists the narrator smell it. The liquid inside is strong, old alcohol—so potent that it makes the narrator sneeze. Riki explains that she found six such bottles hidden in the boathouse that morning, tucked into beams and under loose floorboards. These bottles are physical proof that the local rumors about the Ralston children drinking during Prohibition were true, despite Phillip Ralston's strict disapproval of alcohol.

Riki then reveals that she has spent the night reading Dr. Henson's research and manuscript. She draws a parallel to The Daughter of Time, a novel in which a detective re-examines a famous historical crime and questions the accepted narrative. Riki argues that the official story of Max Ralston's death—that he snuck out while his nurse napped and drowned, and that Clara later died of grief—may be a convenient fiction. Local townspeople have long whispered that a family member killed Max, and Riki is now convinced they were right.

She lays out her reasoning. The six adopted children were raised under a father who was a