Tom Lake

In the present, Emily, Maisie, and Nell are all surprised that Lara’s name was previously Laura—it is something they never knew about their mother.

Lara’s story resumes. At the auditions, Veronica predicted that Lara would get the part, and play opposite Jimmy, Veronica’s boyfriend. When Lara auditioned, she understood why everyone had looked so nervous. Once she began, however, her reading flowed naturally, because she understood Emily. When she was done, the adult judges stood and clapped.

In the present, Lara summarizes what happened next: The play was a success, getting an extended run and even an article in a Concord newspaper. Lara’s daughter Emily asks if Jimmy was as good a George as Duke. Lara points out that Duke played Editor Webb, play-Emily’s father, and never played George, but they don’t believe her. Lara’s husband, Joe, comes in from the barn and advises them to go to bed. They will all be working in the orchard early the next morning. Emily protests, wanting to hear more of the story, despite being the daughter who wants to take over running the orchard. Lara decides to tell the rest as quickly as possible.

Lara’s story resumes. Her senior year, after the success of Our Town, Lara joined Drama Club. The next year she went to the University of New Hampshire. She made extra money doing alterations on the side, but still didn’t know what to do with her life. Acting fell to the background until her junior year, when she found an audition notice for Our Town on campus. Competition was stiff, as there were many other New Hampshire girls who had played Emily, but in the end, she got the part. Bill Ripley, a film director, attended one of the performances and afterward, asked her to fly to Los Angeles for a screen test for his new movie. Lara worried about the logistics of the trip, but it was all arranged for her, as was her future. She was going to be an actor.

The novel returns to the present. Maisie and Nell both came home in March, when the pandemic lockdown began; Emily had come home earlier, when she graduated from college. Life on the farm doesn’t change much during the pandemic, except that they all spend too much time watching the news until Lara makes a rule that the television be left off in the evenings. Lara feels slightly bad that she is happy her daughters are home. Now that it is time to harvest the cherries, their daughters are all being put to work, especially in light of the fact that many of their regular workers won’t be coming that year.

Lara promises to continue her story the next day. Upstairs, Joe is already asleep, a testament to the long difficult hours he works on the farm.

Lara’s story resumes. Lara dated Jimmy, a 22-year-old who taught high school math in a nearby town. Jimmy convinced Lara to sleep with him even though he was dating Veronica; when Veronica found out, it ruined Lara’s life. Later, Lara realized that Jimmy was also seducing his students; although she blamed herself at the time, now she realizes that she was young, and he manipulated her.

The novel returns to the present. The next morning, Joe and Emily meet early to begin work, letting the others sleep in. When Emily announced that she wanted to take over the farm someday, he was thrilled. Nell and Maisie have no interest in the orchards, but Emily got a degree in horticulture with a minor in agribusiness. When Lara wakes up, even though it is summer, she is reminded of when the girls were young, and begged to stay in bed on cold winter mornings. Their house, built in the 1800s, was drafty and cold in the winter.

When Emily was 14, she became convinced that Peter Duke was her father. She knew that Lara had dated him and demanded his phone number. Lara clarified that Duke was not Emily’s father—Joe was. Feeling like she didn’t belong on the farm, Emily remained obsessed with the idea that she should be in Hollywood with Duke. Lara and Joe knew that she was expressing her discontent the only way she knew how.

Emily’s relationship with Joe remained intact, however; she was somehow able to balance Joe and Duke as fathers. Joe blamed himself and Lara blamed him a little bit, as well—he had introduced Duke into their lives. Lara had never intended to tell her daughters that she dated Peter Duke for a summer before he became a famous movie star, but Joe told the girls when Emily was 12 and a Peter Duke movie came on TV one night. The news landed like a bombshell: Duke was their favorite actor, so they questioned Lara about every aspect of him.

Lara and Duke had been in summer stock in Michigan together. Duke had slept in her room every night, although she didn’t tell her daughters that. Still, the girls had watched the movie with a new understanding of their favorite actor as their mother’s boyfriend. After the girls had gone to bed, Joe had apologized. Although interest in Duke died out over time, he remained a part of their lives in a new way. In their favorite movie of his, Swiss Father Robinson, Duke makes a home for his children on a deserted island, spoiled only when the mother rescues them.

Lara and Maisie bring a tray of sandwiches out to the workers. The trees are full of fruit, but they have only a third of their usual staff. Lara wonders how they will get the harvest in. Emily’s boyfriend, Benny Holzapfel, is busy next door, at his own family’s farm. Joe harbors dreams that Emily and Benny will marry and join the farms. When Emily got interested in Benny and the farm, her interest in Duke had waned.

Lara walks with Hazel up the hill to the family cemetery, where three generations of Joe’s family are buried. Her daughters are picking in the cherry orchard below. Planting the cherries had been Benny’s idea when he was 15. The cherries they grow, called sweets, are only sold fresh; the profits have put their daughters through school. As Lara and the girls pick cherries in neighboring trees, Emily asks her mother to return to the story.

Lara’s story resumes. The morning after they met, Lara called Bill Ripley, the movie director, who bought her a plane ticket to LA. She was relieved to have a purpose. Her grandmother sewed her a new wardrobe before she left. Lara tells her daughters that she wasn’t a good actor, but she was just good at being herself and Ripley had seen that.

In LA, Lara was made over and taken to a soundstage for her screen test. Nell asks if she was scared, and after thinking about it, Lara admits that she had realized all she had to do was be herself, and so hadn’t been nervous. After the screen test, Lara went back to New Hampshire, assuming she hadn’t gotten the role. Two weeks later, Ripley flew her back to LA for another screen test. This time, they wanted to see her swim and put her in a tiny bikini. She was so angry that she swam laps, complete with flip turns. Again, she went home thinking she didn’t get the role, but Ripley called to tell her to be there in four weeks to begin filming.

Lara stood out in LA because of her natural hair and unpierced ears. For the movie, she earned $45,000, which seemed an enormous amount to her. When there were delays in filming, her agent got her two commercials and Ripley lent her a car. The movie’s release continued to get pushed back; in the meantime, Lara appeared on a sitcom and in a few more commercials. She felt settled in LA.

In the present, Nell is jealous that Lara’s career fell into her lap, while Nell struggles to get auditions. She is upset, but wants Lara to finish the story. Benny rides up, kisses Emily, and admonishes them to get back to work.

As the lockdown continues, Emily turns her attention more fully to the farm, while Maisie puts her veterinary skills to use locally. Nell, however, feels purposeless, unable to pursue her acting career. When they are all in the trees again, picking, Lara continues telling them about her past.

Lara’s story resumes. Lara waited three years to finish the movie, doing commercials and small parts in between. She considered taking acting classes, but Ripley advised that it would spoil what made her unique. He got her an audition for a Broadway production of Our Town in New York, but she didn’t get the part.

In the present, the girls discuss the causality of Lara’s story, how one thing led to the next, which led her to northern Michigan, and eventually, to them. Emily protests that the story was supposed to be about Duke, and Lara explains that the story leads to Duke—it’s about him, but it also isn’t.

Lara’s story resumes. The day after auditions in New York, Lara was told her that she was still too unknown to cast, because her movie wasn’t out. Lara offered to have sex with Charlie, a member of the casting team, who laughed and instead told her about a summer stock theater in northern Michigan, called Tom Lake. They were doing Our Town and had lost their lead, so they needed someone to step into the Emily role quickly. She agreed.

In the present, Joe drives up because he needs Emily. Maisie goes to meet a professor online, so only Lara and Nell remain to pick. Nell asks Lara if she would really have slept with Charlie, and Lara say no. Nell admits that they talk about these situations in acting school to prepare themselves, but the idea of being faced with this decision scares her. Lara vows to protect her daughter.