All We Have Is Time Summary: A Love Across Centuries
TL;DR: What You Need to Know
On June 13, 1505, a young mother lies dying in the village of Lancaut, England.
Her desperate wish to live is answered by an ancient faerie, but the gift comes with a terrible price: Beatrix Atwood will never age, never sicken, and never die, remaining forever twenty-three years old.
For over three centuries she wanders history alone, until a chance meeting at The Globe Theatre in 1605 brings her face to face with Oliver Rhodes, a charming stranger who vanishes after a single day.
When he reappears in Venice a century later, looking exactly the same, Beatrix discovers he is a time traveler from the 23rd century with a terminal diagnosis and months to live.
Amy Tordoff’s All We Have Is Time follows their impossible romance across centuries.
- The premise: An immortal woman cursed in 1505 and a dying time traveler from 2202 fall in love across centuries, bound by a shared countdown they cannot escape.
- The structure: The novel moves chronologically through historical eras — Tudor England, Jacobean London, 18th-century Venice, Regency frost fairs, the Crystal Palace, both World Wars, 1960s Paris, Woodstock, and the Apollo 11 launch — alternating with Oliver’s 23rd-century present.
- The central tension: Beatrix fears loving mortals because she outlives them all; Oliver is desperate to experience a lifetime of moments before his deadline. Their love is built on stolen days separated by decades for her and mere days for him.
- The key themes: Time as fragile and slipping away, the difference between surviving and truly living, grief as the continuation of love, and memory as a form of immortality.
- The tone: Aching, romantic, bittersweet, and emotionally urgent, with a focus on sensory historical detail and the weight of centuries.
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Characters In This Book
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Beatrix Atwood (Lancourt) | An immortal woman born in Lancaut in 1481, granted eternal youth at age 23 in 1505 by a faerie; she wanders history for over four centuries, working as a pickpocket, maid, governess, factory worker, and clerk. |
| Oliver Rhodes | A 23rd-century history graduate from Boston, born December 3, 2177, who believes he has a terminal brain tumor and uses time-travel excursions to complete a bucket list before his death. |
| William Woodward | Beatrix’s first husband, a woodsman from Lancaut who saved her in 1501 and married her in 1502; he banishes her in 1505 after she revives from death, believing her to be a changeling. |
| Beatrix Grace Woodward (Beckett) | Beatrix and William’s daughter, born June 13, 1505; she lives a full life until 1584, establishing the lineage Beatrix later traces. |
| The Faerie | An ancient entity residing in the oak woods of Lancaut who grants Beatrix’s deathbed wish for immortality, haunts her across centuries, and orchestrates her meetings with Oliver. |
| Theodore “Theo” Rhodes | Oliver’s older brother and a neurobiologist who raised him after their parents’ death; he requested the Aevum report that revealed Oliver’s obituary date and funded his time-travel account. |
| Lucy | An excursion coordinator and administrator at Aevum in 2202 Boston who manages Oliver’s travel schedules and enforces contract rules. |
| ZoĂ« | Oliver’s college friend and a bioengineer who recognizes his love for Beatrix and brings her to his deathbed in 2202. |
| Luke | Oliver’s best friend since second grade who helps him navigate his final months. |
| Anna Noble | Beatrix’s 14x great-granddaughter living in London from 1928 to 1932; a dressmaker who becomes Beatrix’s close friend until her sudden death from a heart condition. |
| Alice & Isabella Atwood | Beatrix’s younger sisters in 1500s Lancaut. |
| Lady Jane DeSallowe | The daughter of the Earl of Whitehall in Venice in 1711, for whom Beatrix works as a personal maid. |
| Professor & Mrs. Winfield | A London scholar of faerie lore in 1819 whose library Beatrix reads while serving as governess to his children, Victor and Margaret. |
All We Have Is Time Summary
Warning: Major spoilers ahead.
In August 1497, sixteen-year-old Beatrix Atwood lives in the village of Lancaut on the River Wye. While tracking a mysterious copper-colored wolf, she meets William Woodward, a young woodsman.
Four years later, after Beatrix suffers a brutal attack in the forest, William rescues her and carries her home. They marry in September 1502, and William slips a gold band on her finger engraved with “Amor vincit omnia” — love conquers all.
On June 13, 1505, Beatrix gives birth to their daughter, Beatrix Grace. As childbed fever and hemorrhaging drain her life, Beatrix lies dying while her sister Alice runs for the priest.
Terrified and furious at the thought of losing her young family, Beatrix utters a desperate wish to live. An ancient faerie listening from the woods answers her prayer, offering a bargain for her survival.
Beatrix wakes fully healed. When William enters and sees her standing alive after her heart had stopped, he is overcome with terror, convinced she is a faerie changeling or demon who replaced his dead wife.
Cradling their newborn daughter, he banishes her. Heartbroken and exiled, Beatrix flees Lancaut for London. She quickly realizes the terrifying nature of the gift: she will never age, never sicken, and never die, remaining forever twenty-three.
For a century, Beatrix survives on the fringes of London, sleeping in the alcoves of old St. Paul’s Cathedral and learning to pick pockets to feed herself. On June 15, 1605, while picking pockets among the crowds at The Globe Theatre, she targets an oddly dressed young man named Oliver.
Instead of turning her in, Oliver buys her a feast and the two spend a magical day exploring London together. Before vanishing into the crowd at dusk, Oliver hands her a strange silver quarter dated 1986.
Beatrix continues her endless path through history, surviving the Great Plague of 1665 and witnessing the destruction of old St. Paul’s in the Great Fire of 1666. By 1711, she has moved to Venice, serving as a personal maid to Lady Jane DeSallowe under the assumed surname Lancourt.
During Carnevale, she attends a masked ball and dances with a charming stranger. When they step onto the Rialto Bridge at dawn, the man removes his mask and flips her the identical 1986 silver quarter — revealing himself as Oliver, looking exactly as he did one hundred and six years earlier.
When Beatrix confesses her true birth year and her 1505 death, Oliver reveals his own secret: he is not immortal, but a time traveler skipping across centuries.
In his home era of Boston in 2202, he is a twenty-four-year-old history graduate. After collapsing at a graduation celebration, doctors discover an inoperable, terminal brain condition.
His estranged older brother, Theo, delivers devastating news. Ten years earlier, out of panic, Theo had contacted Aevum, a commercial trans-temporal travel agency, and requested a future investigator’s report on Oliver.
The document is Oliver’s official obituary, recording his death on September 19, 2202 — giving him less than four months to live. To make amends, Theo gives Oliver an account at Aevum.
Under Aevum’s protocols, travelers receive a medical recall chip allowing excursions into the past lasting up to twelve hours. Determined to pack a full lifetime into his remaining weeks, Oliver writes a bucket list in a dark brown leather notebook.
Knowing their meetings are separated by days for Oliver but decades for Beatrix, the pair establish a tradition of scheduling future dates.
In March 1717, they meet at Drury Lane Theatre to watch the first modern ballet. Oliver nicknames her “Bea.”
In February 1814, ninety-seven years later for Beatrix, they reunite at the Frost Fair on the frozen River Thames, dancing under London Bridge and skating on the river. In a cozy inn room, Oliver begins teaching Beatrix how to read.
In November 1817, spurred by her growing literacy, Beatrix returns to the ruins of Lancaut. In the churchyard of St. James’s, she finds William’s grave inscribed with “Amor vincit omnia” alongside the headstone of their daughter, who lived a full life until 1584.
In 1819, working as a governess for the Winfield family, Beatrix uses her reading skills to explore the late Professor Winfield’s library of faerie lore.
In May 1824, Beatrix travels a thousand miles to Vienna to join Oliver for the premiere of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. Knowing Beethoven has only three years left to live, Oliver is too heartbroken to attend.
They skip the concert to explore the gardens of Schönbrunn Palace. Beatrix gives Oliver the genealogical document, asking him to research her living lineage in Aevum’s future database.
In May 1851, they meet under an elm tree at the Great Exhibition inside the Crystal Palace. After Beatrix kisses him, Oliver breaks down. He pulls out his worn obituary and shows it to her, revealing that he has only three months left to live in his present.
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Devastated by the realization that she will inevitably outlive him, Beatrix retreats, overwhelmed by grief and fear of attachment.
Beatrix attempts to rebuild her emotional walls. During World War I, she stays with a family in Great Yarmouth and protects young Elsie during a Zeppelin bombing raid. In 1916, while working at the Barnbow National Filling Factory in Leeds, a catastrophic munitions explosion occurs.
Oliver — having looked up her record in Aevum’s database — travels back to rescue her from the rubble. In an inn room as her wounds magically heal, Oliver desperately warns her to stay out of London during the World War II Blitz.
Angered by his attempt to protect her while he himself is dying, they argue, and Oliver vanishes back to 2202.
Four years later, in 1920, Oliver returns to Barnbow to apologize. He hands her an Aevum research file on her 14x great-granddaughter, Anna Noble.
Moving to London in 1928, Beatrix befriends Anna, who runs a dressmaking shop, enjoying four years of sweet, normal family connection without revealing her identity. In May 1932, Anna dies instantly from an undiagnosed heart condition.
In crippling grief, Beatrix attempts to drown herself in her bathtub, but her curse forces her lungs to recover. Oliver arrives, pulls her from the water, holds her as she weeps, and gently teaches her that “grief is love, too.” In May 1945, Beatrix and Oliver celebrate VE Day together at St. Paul’s Cathedral, watching the floodlights illuminate London’s skyline.
In July 1960, Oliver plans a lavish three-day excursion to Paris for Beatrix’s 479th birthday. They stay in a hotel overlooking the Eiffel Tower, visit the Louvre, share a picnic along the Seine, and take a Polaroid photograph together.
That evening, Oliver recognizes the Polaroid image: it is the exact photo printed on his future obituary. That night, Beatrix and Oliver give in to their feelings and become intimate.
Beatrix asks Oliver to visit the ruins of Lancaut with her in 1965. However, back in 2202, Oliver’s health deteriorates rapidly.
When he attempts to travel, Aevum’s system flags his vitals with “ACCESS DENIED: SUBJECT UNSTABLE” and places him on forced medical suspension. Determined not to fail Beatrix, Oliver rests, confides his entire story to his brother Theo, and manages to pass one final pre-approved travel check.
In August 1965, they stargaze amidst the ruins of Lancaut. Oliver admits his declining health means every visit could be his last. Beatrix refuses to say goodbye, pleading with him to find her in his own time — 237 years in her future. Oliver hands her a sealed white envelope, instructing her to open it only when she is ready.
On July 16, 1969, Beatrix meets Oliver in Florida to watch the Apollo 11 moon launch. As the rocket soars into the sky, Oliver’s recall chip detects severe bodily failure and automatically force-recalls him to 2202 mid-launch. Beatrix is left standing alone in the crowd.
In their motel room, Beatrix finds Oliver’s dark brown travel journal left behind. Looking through the pages, she sees the next scheduled entry: “Woodstock, August 15-18, 1969.”
She drives to Bethel, New York, and searches frantically through half a million people in the mud and rain, but Oliver never appears — his medical condition prevents Aevum from ever authorizing another jump.
Realizing Oliver cannot come to her, Beatrix takes up his leather journal. Over the next century, she travels the world alone, completing every remaining item on his bucket list and filling the blank pages with her fine cursive handwriting. Upon finishing the final page in London in 2102, she remembers the sealed envelope from 1965.
Inside, she finds a page torn from Oliver’s original notebook with an address and a date: September 17, 2202 at the Glass Flowers Exhibit, Harvard Museum of Natural History, Cambridge, Massachusetts.
On September 17, 2202, Beatrix arrives at the Glass Flowers exhibit. She is met not by Oliver, but by his friend Zoë. Zoë hands her a letter from Oliver explaining that he is bedridden in Winchester and giving her the choice to see him. Beatrix goes to his house immediately. She finds Oliver frail, pale, and near death in his bed.
For two days, Beatrix stays by his side.
They read through their completed travel journal together, watching the sunrise and sunset from his window, and finally speak their unconditional love aloud. On September 19, 2202 — the exact date printed on his obituary — Oliver dies peacefully in Beatrix’s arms, surrounded by Theo, ZoĂ«, and Luke.
Overcome with unbearable grief, Beatrix collapses beside his body and screams into the dark: “I take it back!” Instantly, she is pulled across space and time back to her clearing in Lancaut. The faerie appears on the oak bough, triumphant, expecting Beatrix to yield her soul to end her pain.
Beatrix refuses to regret her life or her love for Oliver, declaring that every moment was real and worth living. Instead, Beatrix proposes a new trade: her own immortal soul in exchange for Oliver’s life — “Your soul for his life.” The faerie accepts.
The faerie unspools Beatrix’s timeline, unweaving her immortal existence moment by moment until her soul is traded away and she ceases to exist.
On October 19, 2202, back in Boston, Oliver wakes up in the Aevum medical lab. Lucy enters his room with staggering news: Aevum’s Excursion Research Department discovered that Oliver’s original medical report ten years ago was completely falsified, and his recent recall chip had been faulty.
Oliver does not have a brain tumor — he is completely healthy and is going to live a full, normal life.
One year later, on September 19, 2203, Oliver travels to London and climbs the two hundred and fifty-nine steps of St. Paul’s Cathedral.
He sits on the curved bench in the Whispering Gallery where Beatrix once whispered her story. He pulls their completed brown leather journal from his backpack and leaves it on the stone bench for another visitor to find — knowing that Beatrix traded her eternity to give him his life, and that her memory, love, and stories will live on forever.
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Books Like All We Have Is Time
- The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue by V.E. Schwab: Features a young woman cursed with immortality in the 18th century who wanders centuries alone, exploring themes of memory, art, romance, and leaving a mark on history.
- The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley: Combines time-travel mechanics, historical figures adapting to new eras, government oversight, and a central romance bound by temporal constraints.
- The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger: A temporal romance centered on a time traveler who involuntarily jumps across decades to meet his love at different stages of her life, shadowed by a known future mortality.
- Life After Life by Kate Atkinson: A sweeping speculative historical novel that explores living through major European historical events across shifting temporal lines.
- Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore: A time-jumping story exploring how love, grief, and self-discovery unfold when a protagonist experiences life out of chronological sequence.
Book Details and Specifications
- Genre & Subgenre: Historical Fantasy / Speculative Time-Travel Romance
- Core Narrative Tropes: Star-Crossed Lovers Across Time; Immortal x Time Traveler; Cursed Eternal Youth; Terminal Diagnosis Countdown; Found Family Across Centuries; Ultimate Self-Sacrifice for Love
- Tone & Atmosphere: Aching, romantic, bittersweet, atmospheric, and emotionally urgent
- Primary Conflict: The existential collision between Beatrix (an immortal who fears loving mortals) and Oliver (a terminally ill time traveler with months to live)
- Pacing Style: Episodic yet tightly interconnected non-linear plot spanning from 1497 to 2203, alternating dual timelines
- ISBN: 978-1668068045
- Pages: 352
- Book Structure: Chronologically organized by distinct date and location headers (e.g., “13 JUNE 1505 Lancaut, England”), spanning chapters from 1497 to 2203, followed by an Author’s Note and Acknowledgements
