Chapter summaries Homecoming Kate Morton

Chapter 26: 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

Chapter 26 shifts between two perspectives on the evening of December 17, 2018, in Sydney, three days after Nora's funeral. Polly is downstairs at Nora's dining table, preparing a simple meal for herself and Jess. She reflects on her arrival from Brisbane the previous Friday, when she had expected to spend the weekend helping her daughter organize funeral arrangements. Instead, she discovered that Jess—named executor by Nora—had already handled nearly everything. Polly watches her daughter's capable handling of the service with a mixture of admiration and self-reproach, remembering that she had forfeited the right to feel pride in Jess long ago.

The funeral itself was dignified, with Jess reading Christina Rossetti's poem "Let Me Go," and the wake was held as a garden party at Darling House, exactly the kind of gathering Nora would have wanted. Yet Polly notices that Jess seems distracted in a way that goes beyond ordinary grief. Mrs. Robinson has reported that Jess has been asking insistent questions about the Turner family and Halcyon. Polly recognizes this intensity—it is the same fixated curiosity Jess displayed as a child.

Polly has brought a copy of Daniel Miller's book from Brisbane, intending to give it to Jess. She learned that Nora, while semi-conscious in the hospital, had mentioned Halcyon, and Jess had pieced together the connection. Polly is surprised, since Nora had been adamant that Jess must never learn the truth about what happened in South Australia. But Nora is gone now, and Polly feels released from the promise she made years ago, when Nora stood over Jess's crib and implored her to keep the secret.

Polly's thoughts drift back to her decision to move to Queensland when Jess was ten. Nora had persuaded her to leave Jess behind for the final year of primary school, pointing out that Jess had just won the lead role in the school musical. What was meant to be a temporary arrangement became permanent, with Polly calling at eight thirty each night and often finding Jess too tired or too busy to speak. Nora assured her that Jess was thriving, and Polly convinced herself this was a good thing. Now, looking back, she acknowledges the decision was her own fault and that it all worked out—Jess became a magnificent person—but the memory still carries weight.

Upstairs, Jess is wearing one of Nora's dresses, a vintage Carla Zampatti that Nora wore to a theater opening in the 1980s. She remembers admiring the framed photograph of Nora in that dress as a little girl, and she recalls Nora's advice: "Aim to be decorative, dearest, but always on your own terms." The memory of her grandmother's voice is so close it sears.

Jess is overwhelmed by grief—not only for Nora but for her own life. Her career is in tatters: she missed a deadline for the first time in her memory, and she had been struggling with the article even before Nora's death, feeling her work had become pointless. She has no family to speak of, and her home in London is a house she cannot afford, standing empty on the other side of the planet. She feels as if the strings that tethered her to the world have been severed.

Most painfully, Jess is consumed by guilt. Nora had wanted to die at Darling House, and Jess believes she failed to honor that wish. She wonders whether she was simply too slow to understand what the doctors and nurses were telling her at the hospital, whether she should have brought Nora home sooner, whether she should have been more observant and more insistent. The one time Nora relied on her to advocate, Jess feels she failed.

She recalls Nora's advice about taking things "one step at a time," but now she wonders what to do when she does not know where "there" is. Downstairs, she hears Polly clattering in the kitchen, and she feels a flash of resentment that her mother is being careless with Nora's things. Yet the part of Jess that remembers when it was just the two of them in the flat, laughing together in the sunlight before hurt hardened her heart, will not allow her to express frustration toward her mother. She brushes her hair, pinches her cheeks, keeps the dress on because it smells like Nora, and makes her way downstairs.

Key Events

  • Polly prepares dinner at Nora's dining table, reflecting on the funeral and the wake.
  • Polly recalls arriving from Brisbane expecting to help with arrangements, only to find Jess had already organized everything as Nora's executor.
  • Jess reads "Let Me Go" at the funeral; the wake is a garden party at Darling House.
  • Polly learns from Mrs. Robinson that Jess has been asking about the Turner family and Halcyon.
  • Polly brings Daniel Miller's book from Brisbane, intending to give it to Jess.
  • Polly reflects on the permanent arrangement that kept Jess with Nora after Polly moved to Queensland.
  • Polly decides she is released from her promise to keep the South Australia secret.
  • Upstairs, Jess grieves in Nora's dress, feeling guilt over Nora's unfulfilled wish to die at Darling House.
  • Jess reflects on her failing career, her empty London house, and her sense of being unmoored.
  • Jess suppresses her resentment toward Polly and heads downstairs for dinner.

Character Development

Polly emerges in this chapter as a woman shaped by a lifetime of invisibility and self-doubt. She describes herself as an astute observer, a skill honed by watching others from the margins. Her reflections on the past reveal deep regret about leaving Jess with Nora, even as she insists it all worked out. The chapter shows her at a turning point: with Nora gone, she is no longer bound by her promise, and she has brought the book that may finally reveal the truth to Jess. Her decision to give it to her daughter suggests a quiet act of reclamation—an attempt to repair a relationship that has been distant for decades.

Jess is portrayed in the grip of a profound identity crisis. Her grief is compounded by professional failure, financial insecurity, and a sense of rootlessness. She has always defined herself through capability and independence—her first word as a baby was reportedly "I do"—but now she questions whether she knows where she is going. Her guilt over Nora's death is sharp and specific: she believes she failed to advocate for her grandmother's wish to die at home. Yet even in her resentment toward Polly, Jess shows restraint, held back by the memory of the closeness they once shared. Her decision to keep wearing Nora's dress, because it smells like her grandmother, is a poignant gesture of clinging to what remains.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Grief and mourning are explored in two distinct registers. Polly's grief is quieter, filtered through practical tasks and memory. Jess's grief is raw and destabilizing, described as a feeling of the solid earth disappearing beneath her feet. The chapter distinguishes between the public performance of mourning—the dignified funeral, the garden-party wake—and the private, chaotic experience of loss.

Family secrets and the release from promises form the chapter's central tension. Polly has kept the South Australia secret for decades, bound by a promise made over Jess's crib. Nora's death releases her from that obligation, and the chapter positions this release as both a liberation and a risk. The book by Daniel Miller, sitting on the table, is a physical symbol of the truth waiting to be spoken.

Mother-daughter relationships are examined from both directions. Polly's guilt about leaving Jess is intertwined with her recognition that Nora gave Jess opportunities she could not. Jess's resentment toward Polly is tempered by the memory of their early closeness. The chapter suggests that love and hurt can coexist in the same relationship, and that neither cancels the other.

Guilt and regret are pervasive. Polly regrets the arrangement that became permanent. Jess regrets failing to bring Nora home in time. Both women carry the weight of choices they cannot undo, and the chapter shows how grief magnifies these feelings.

Displacement and rootlessness are embodied in Jess's situation: a London house she cannot afford, a career in crisis, a sense that the strings tethering her to the world have been severed. Even Polly, who has a home in Brisbane, is displaced in Sydney, moving through Nora's house as a visitor.

Memory and nostalgia are evoked through sensory details—the smell of Nora's dress, the framed photograph on the chest of drawers, the memory of sunlight in the flat. These details ground the characters' emotional states in the physical world.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 26 is a pivotal emotional chapter that brings the two central characters into the same space at a moment of decision. Polly's release from her promise sets up the revelation of the South Australia secret, which has been the novel's central mystery. Her decision to bring Daniel Miller's book—and her hesitation about how to present it—creates anticipation for the conversation that will follow.

The chapter also deepens our understanding of Jess's psychological state. Her guilt over Nora's death, her professional crisis, and her sense of being unmoored explain why she has been so insistent in her questions about the Turner family and Halcyon. She is not merely curious; she is searching for an anchor, for a sense of identity and belonging that has been shaken.

Finally, the chapter humanizes Polly. Her reflections on the past reveal the cost of the choices she made, and her quiet determination to give Jess the book suggests a desire to make amends. The chapter ends with Jess descending the stairs, the two women about to share a meal—and, implicitly, the truth.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Polly feel released from her promise to keep the South Australia secret?

Polly made the promise to Nora years ago, when Nora stood over Jess's crib and implored her to keep the secret of what happened in South Australia. At the time, Polly agreed because she did not want to burden her young daughter with the anguish she herself had suffered upon learning the truth. As Jess grew older, their relationship became distant, and Polly never found the right moment to tell her. Now that Nora is dead, Polly reasons that the decision is no longer hers to make and the secret is not hers to keep. She compares the feeling to being released from a promise in a fairy tale, suggesting that Nora's death has lifted an obligation that had weighed on her for decades.

2. What specific guilt does Jess carry about Nora's death, and how does it affect her?

Jess feels guilty that she did not honor Nora's wish to die at Darling House. She tells herself that everything happened quickly, but she wonders whether she was simply too slow to understand what the doctors and nurses were trying to tell her at the hospital. She believes she should have brought Nora home sooner, been more observant, and been more insistent. This guilt is compounded by the fact that Nora relied on Jess to advocate for her, and Jess feels she failed. The guilt contributes to her broader sense of crisis, making her question her competence and her identity. She has never before considered herself a failure, but now she is stuck in a place she does not recognize, with no signposts and no idea where to put the next step.

3. How does the chapter use the dress Jess wears to connect past and present?

The dress is a vintage Carla Zampatti that Nora wore to a theater opening in the 1980s. A photograph of Nora in the dress was printed in a newspaper, and the photographer sent Nora a print as a gift. Jess remembers admiring the framed picture as a little girl, standing at her grandmother's chest of drawers and thinking that the woman in the black dress was the height of adult chic. By wearing the dress to the funeral and keeping it on afterward, Jess physically inhabits her grandmother's presence. The dress carries Nora's scent, and Jess leaves it on because of that smell. It is a tangible link to the past, a way of holding on to Nora even as she grieves, and a symbol of the legacy Jess is trying to understand.

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