Chapter 20 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.

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Now, let's dive into Chapter 20.

Summary

Josephine, Cate, and Tom drive to Patricia's property in Vermont, a place marked by escalating NO TRESPASSING signs that feel like a physical barricade.

The farmhouse itself looks like a rustic brochure, but the atmosphere is heavy with unease.

Patricia answers the door, small but imperious, with two long braids and a black turtleneck.

She initially refuses them entry, but when Josephine hands her the anonymous letter—the one that seems to have been written collectively by the Homestead women—Patricia reads it and then tells Tom to leave, allowing only Josephine and Cate inside.

Tom reluctantly agrees, asking Josephine to tell him everything later.

Inside, the house is obsessively tidy, a stark contrast to the chaos of the Homestead.

Patricia paces, rereading the letter, and eventually reveals her deep hostility toward Bellanger, calling him a hijacker who owned the women and their histories.

She then pulls back a rug, lifts a floorboard, and retrieves a hidden shoebox containing cigarettes, a lighter, and later a photograph.

She lights a cigarette and begins to tell her story.

Patricia explains that she met Margaret in New York City, where they were roommates in a walk-up.

Margaret worked at a diner but secretly attended biology lectures at a college, fascinated by Gregory Pincus's research on parthenogenesis—birth without sex.

Margaret envisioned a world where women could have children without being beholden to men, and she dreamed of a community where self-conception could reawaken.

Patricia, who had inherited land in Vermont, offered it as the site for what would become the Homestead.

They recruited other women, many from other communes or fleeing abusive men.

For six months, they lived without men, but no pregnancies occurred.

Discouragement set in, and some women resorted to dangerous fasting or herbal concoctions.

Margaret insisted they needed scientific help and wrote to Joseph Bellanger, a disgraced former medical student who had been blacklisted for his controversial experiments on rats and sheep.

Bellanger corresponded with them, then visited and performed procedures.

Margaret became the first to conceive, and Josephine was born.

Patricia admits she almost left then, jealous that Bellanger had brought Margaret's vision to life instead of her, but she stayed when she saw Josephine, who was a perfect duplicate of Margaret.

Bellanger remained, and Isabelle was born later.

Patricia explains that Bellanger could not be removed once involved—he saw the girls as his tickets to scientific acclaim, and he gave the women legitimacy, protecting them from being seen as witches.

When Josephine asks about Fiona, Patricia's face twitches, and she stands, saying she can do better than tell her—she can show her.

Key Events

• Josephine, Cate, and Tom arrive at Patricia's heavily signposted Vermont property.

• Patricia reads the anonymous letter and allows only Josephine and Cate inside, excluding Tom.

• Patricia retrieves a hidden shoebox from under a floorboard, containing cigarettes and a photograph.

• She recounts her past with Margaret: their meeting in New York, Margaret's secret biology studies, and her fascination with Gregory Pincus's parthenogenesis research.

• Margaret's vision of a women-only community leads Patricia to offer her Vermont land for the Homestead.

• After six months without pregnancies, Margaret writes to Joseph Bellanger, a disgraced scientist.

• Bellanger visits, performs procedures, and Margaret becomes the first to conceive, giving birth to Josephine.

• Patricia nearly leaves but stays, and Isabelle is born later.

• Patricia explains that Bellanger could not be removed once involved, as he owned the women's histories and gave them scientific legitimacy.

• When Josephine asks about Fiona, Patricia offers to show her something rather than explain.

Character Development

Josephine undergoes a significant shift in this chapter.

She learns that her mother's past was far richer and more complex than she ever knew.

The image of Margaret as a solitary, self-contained woman is replaced by that of a passionate visionary who loved Patricia and dreamed of a new world.

Josephine also confronts her own origin story: she was the first