In Her Defence Summary Chapter by Chapter | Philippa Malicka
Introduction To In Her Defence (Chapter-by-Chapter Summary)
In In Her Defence by Philippa Malicka, a sensational libel trial becomes the stage for something far more intimate and unsettling.
Celebrity lifestyle mogul Anna Finbow accuses unlicensed therapist Jean Guest of operating a cult after Anna’s daughter, Mary, cuts contact and surrenders her life to Jean’s “healing” program.
But the novel is narrated by Augusta “Gus” Bird — a struggling ceramicist who inserts herself into Anna’s household while hiding her own past connection to Mary and Jean.
This In Her Defence Summary Chapter by Chapter traces both the courtroom battle and the slow, corrosive unraveling that began two years earlier in Rome.
Book Structure Overview
| Section | Units | Timeline Focus |
|---|---|---|
| Part One | Sections 1–11 | Trial Day One / Stoke-on-Trent (Present) |
| Part Two | Sections 12–14 | Rome Flashback / Trial Day Two |
| Part Three | Sections 15–21 | Rome Flashback / Trial Days Two & Three |
| Part Four | Sections 22–31 | Rome Flashback / Trial Days Four, Five, Six & Seven |
| Part Five | Sections 32–34 | The Verdict / Epilogue (Present) |
Narrative Flow: Non-linear, alternating between the high-stakes London libel trial and Gus Bird’s memories of her 2019 art residency in Rome.
The structure creates a slow-burn revelation of Gus’s hidden culpability in the very tragedy she observes from the gallery.
Book Table of Contents
Part One: Trial and Infiltration (Sections 1–11)
- Guest v. Finbow: Day One
- Stoke-on-Trent: April
- Guest v. Finbow: Day One (The Newsletter)
- Stoke-on-Trent: April (The Interview)
- Guest v. Finbow: Day One (Opening Submissions)
- Stoke-on-Trent: April (Routine)
- Guest v. Finbow: Day One (Anna on the Stand)
- Stoke-on-Trent: May
- Guest v. Finbow: Day One (The Arrest)
- Stoke-on-Trent: June
- Guest v. Finbow: Day One (Aftermath)
Part Two: The Rome Connection (Sections 12–14)
12. Rome: September
13. Guest v. Finbow: Day Two (Intro)
14. Rome: September (The School)
Part Three: Deepening Influence (Sections 15–21)
15. Rome: October
16. Guest v. Finbow: Day Two (Mary’s Evidence)
17. Rome: October/November (The Bath)
18. Rome: The Sanctuary
19. Guest v. Finbow: Day Two (Pregnancy Aftermath)
20. Rome: November (Hypnosis)
21. Guest v. Finbow: Day Three
Part Four: Betrayals Exposed (Sections 22–31)
22. Rome: November (The Breakup)
23. Guest v. Finbow: Day Four (Jean Cross-Ex)
24. Rome: December (The Party)
25. Guest v. Finbow: Day Five (Lucy Ayres)
26. Guest v. Finbow: Day Five (Gus’s Truth)
27. Guest v. Finbow: Day Five (The Recording)
28. Sunnymede: Saturday
29. Guest v. Finbow: Day Six (Witness H)
30. Guest v. Finbow: Day Six (The Park)
31. Guest v. Finbow: Day Seven (The Stand)
Part Five: Aftermath (Sections 32–34)
32. Stoke: December (The Verdict)
33. New Year’s Eve
34. Five Months Later (Epilogue)
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In Her Defence Summary Chapter by Chapter
⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This section contains detailed, chapter-by-chapter plot summaries. You have been warned.
Part One: Trial and Infiltration
Section 1: Guest v. Finbow: Day One
The Royal Courts of Justice buzz with media frenzy as Anna Finbow arrives for her libel trial.
Gus Bird watches from the gallery, concealing her connection to both the plaintiff and the defendant—and her shame regarding Anna’s husband, Bonamy.
Gus meets Lucy Ayres, whose daughter Oriel died by suicide after intensive therapy with Jean Guest. The courtroom atmosphere crackles with anticipation.
The public wants to watch Anna Finbow’s “perfect family” myth detonate.
Section 2: Stoke-on-Trent: April
Gus relocates to Stoke-on-Trent, fleeing London heartbreak and seeking affordable studio space. She spots Anna Finbow on the street and impulsively lies about her background to apply for work with Anna’s brand.
Gus deletes mention of a previous failed meeting with Anna from her application. Anna’s assistant, Clover, requests an interview. For the first time in months, Gus feels purposeful.
Section 3: Guest v. Finbow: Day One (The Newsletter)
The trial’s origin myth emerges: Anna’s newsletter, The Peony, published an essay accusing Jean Guest of implanting false memories in Anna’s daughter Mary.
Jean seeks seven-figure damages for reputational destruction. Anna and Bonamy scan the gallery desperately. Mary has not come.
Jean Guest arrives looking like a modest academic. Gus finds this disguise chilling.
Section 4: Stoke-on-Trent: April (The Interview)
Gus visits Anna’s cavernous loft, a functioning film set for cooking shows. Clover coaches her: always agree with Anna, never mention the legal “nuisance.”
Anna appears pale and sleep-starved but retains her resilient beauty. The job isn’t artist—it’s dog walker. Gus accepts the menial position to maintain access.
Section 5: Guest v. Finbow: Day One (Opening Submissions)
Jean’s barrister, Ms. Ibrahim, argues Mary is an adult who escaped a harmful family.
She portrays Jean as a dedicated healer blending psychodynamic and holistic techniques. Anna’s barrister, Ms. Carr, counters that unregulated therapy breeds danger.
She claims Jean weaponizes “transference” and false memories to create codependent devotees. Anna Finbow is called to the stand.
Section 6: Stoke-on-Trent: April (Routine)
Gus establishes her dog-walking rhythm, granting unsupervised access to Anna’s home. She snoops through drawers, studies family photographs of Mary.
Gus recognizes Mary’s “vacancy”—she felt it too, once. She defends Anna from tabloid journalists scavenging through her trash. This act of loyalty earns Gus new trust and intimacy.
Section 7: Guest v. Finbow: Day One (Anna on the Stand)
Anna traces her arc from 90s musician to domestic goddess. She describes her bond with Mary as a “perfect trinity” until Jean poisoned it.
Childhood photographs of Mary’s devotion are entered as evidence. Anna weeps.
She insists Mary’s scripted-sounding emails about “healing separations” bear Jean’s fingerprints. Anna concludes Jean is motivated by envy and material greed.
Section 8: Stoke-on-Trent: May
Clover’s absence pushes Gus into expanded household duties. During a walk, Anna condemns therapy as “cowardice” and reveals plans for Mary’s psychiatric assessment.
Gus challenges her, warning it will push Mary further away.
Anna lashes out: Gus cannot understand because she has no children. The exchange exposes Anna’s obsession with controlling Mary’s narrative.
Section 9: Guest v. Finbow: Day One (The Arrest)
Ms. Ibrahim cross-examines Anna about breaching an injunction to contact Mary. Anna admits kicking a police car but claims she was “deranged with grief.”
The defense introduces Mary’s allegations: a repressive home, parental drug use. Anna concedes she gave fourteen-year-old Mary cannabis. She leaves the stand hollowed and defeated.
Section 10: Stoke-on-Trent: June
Gus overhears Anna’s legal strategy session. They are hunting Oriel Ayres as a witness. Anna also wants to involve artist Lawrence Melrose, despite “ugly accusations” against him.
Post-meeting, Anna drinks heavily and confesses Bonamy sighted Mary looking “like a tramp.” Gus comforts her, recognizing she has become a surrogate daughter.
She accidentally drops stolen perfume—Mary’s scent—from her pocket.
Section 11: Guest v. Finbow: Day One (Aftermath)
Gus trails Lucy Ayres through London but loses her in the crowd. Bernard, Gus’s support worker, warns her: lawyers will try to paint her as a stalker.
Gus reviews her evidence: emails, texts, a Polaroid of her and Mary in Rome. The image shows Gus smiling dreamily, gripping Mary’s knee. The flashback portal opens.
Part Two: The Rome Connection
Section 12: Rome: September
Gus arrives in Rome for an art residency. Loneliness and cost crush her. At a Trastevere bar, she encounters Mary Finbow and her wealthy, magnetic art-school friends.
They need life models. Gus introduces herself boldly. Mary insists they urgently need “models like you.” Gus feels a fusion she believes altered her life forever.
Section 13: Guest v. Finbow: Day Two (Intro)
Gus enters the courtroom. Mary sits with Jean’s legal team, radically transformed: hand-dyed tunic, cropped hair. Their eyes meet. Mary raises her hand in a small greeting.
Gus’s chest floods with happiness. Mary is sworn in as a witness.
Section 14: Rome: September (The School)
Gus attends the model casting at Lawrence Melrose’s academy. Insecurity floods her. Aristocratic faces fill the studio. Mary waits until the final moment to select Gus as her model.
Lawrence discourages her: Gus is too inexperienced, too “straightforward.” Mary remains adamant. “I would like to paint her,” she says.
Part Three: Deepening Influence
Section 15: Rome: October
Portrait sittings begin. Tense intimacy grows between Gus and Mary. Mary confesses she feels “contained” by Lawrence’s rules; her parents would cut funding if she left.
Gus meets Jean Guest at her ceramic studio. Jean, a therapist, takes maternal interest in Gus’s struggles and her unspoken “crush.” She offers her home as sanctuary. Gus begins to see her as a mentor.
Section 16: Guest v. Finbow: Day Two (Mary’s Evidence)
Mary testifies her upbringing was “actively repressive” and exacerbated her suffering.
She denies brainwashing. Jean gave her strength to name her parents’ “demon” behavior. Mary accuses Anna of jealousy and sabotaging her past relationships.
She credits Jean with her recovery from addiction and her artistic “blossoming.” Mary reveals she is six months pregnant. The courtroom fractures.
Section 17: Rome: October/November (The Bath)
Jean draws Gus a bath—an act of intimate care that feels curative. Later, Gus and Mary party and share Mary’s bed. Gus touches Mary in the darkness, a bead of pleasure.
Mary’s morning reaction is ambiguous. Gus notices a predatory message on Mary’s phone from an “artists’ mentoring scheme.” It sounds like Jean.
Section 18: Rome: The Sanctuary
Jean offers her home as sanctuary when Gus feels overwhelmed by the residency or her feelings for Mary.
Gus becomes addicted to the push-pull of Mary’s attention, checking her phone obsessively. Jean encourages Gus to bring Mary into her creative practice—it might “set her free.”
Gus meets Mary’s godfather, an American actor called Beaker, at a luxury hotel. Mary and Gus share an intimate night. Jean later insists this means they are “in love.”
Section 19: Guest v. Finbow: Day Two (Pregnancy Aftermath)
Gus processes Mary’s pregnancy with horror.
She envisions Jean eventually controlling the child. Cross-examination reveals Mary now lives in an unsanitary outdoor camp. She has signed all her London properties over to Jean Guest.
Mary admits she feels “too weak” to survive without Jean’s management. The trial adjourns. Jean is positioned to inherit Mary’s fortune—and her child.
Section 20: Rome: November (Hypnosis)
Gus begins formal “healing sessions” with Jean, who records their conversations. Jean convinces Gus her parents are “toxic,” the root of her self-sabotage.
Hypnosis guides Gus to “rewire” traumatic school memories. Jean installs herself as Gus’s primary source of love and guidance. Gus witnesses Lawrence Melrose touching Mary inappropriately during a sitting.
Section 21: Guest v. Finbow: Day Three
Jean Guest takes the stand. She defends hypnotic regression therapy as a “broad, liberating church.” She portrays herself as Anna’s victim; the “vicious campaign” cost her regular clients.
Jean weaponizes Anna’s own “Russian doll” metaphor: she and her clients “live within each other.” Gus watches from the gallery, revulsion and lingering, shamed love tangling in her chest.
Part Four: Betrayals Exposed
Section 22: Rome: November (The Breakup)
Gus’s parents visit Rome. Their criticism drives her deeper into Jean’s orbit. Jean grows angry when Gus fails to deliver Mary to dinner. She accuses Gus of “sponging” off her expertise.
Gus agrees to pay for formal sessions she cannot afford. She watches a murmuration of starlings. Jean explains it as human “patterns of relations.”
Section 23: Guest v. Finbow: Day Four (Jean Cross-Ex)
Ms. Carr exposes Jean Guest’s qualifications: purchased online for under £500. Former clients submit statements about blackmail and “recovered” false memories.
Jean denies controlling Mary’s assets; Mary chose to support her “temporarily.” Jean locks eyes with Gus in the gallery. She smiles—a threatening smile of “forgiveness.”
Section 24: Rome: December (The Party)
The Melrose Academy hosts a Roman-themed costume party on a Tiber island. Gus spots a woman who looks exactly like Jean by the river with a student. Jean later denies being there.
Gus finds Mary in a cloakroom, Lawrence Melrose pawing at her. Gus confronts Mary afterward.
Mary confesses Lawrence has been grooming her since she was sixteen. Gus introduces Mary to Jean—to “save” her from Lawrence.
Section 25: Guest v. Finbow: Day Five (Lucy Ayres)
Lucy Ayres testifies about her daughter Oriel’s suicide. Oriel cut off her family after beginning therapy with Jean. Gus flees the courtroom, unable to face her own reflection in this story.
A Rome recording plays: Jean manipulating Gus, making her feel “dead” yet safe. Gus finally admits the truth: she wasn’t just a victim. She actively spied on Anna for Jean to win back Jean’s favor.
Section 26: Guest v. Finbow: Day Five (Gus’s Truth)
Gus reflects on how easily she withheld truth while working for Anna. She remembers dropping Mary’s perfume at the loft—a signal. The Finbows never took her seriously.
After trial adjournment, Gus stays with the Finbows during Notting Hill Carnival. Lawrence and Anna confront her in Mary’s bedroom. Gus is cast out.
Section 27: Guest v. Finbow: Day Five (The Recording)
Gus watches her own therapy recording. Vulnerability excruciates her. Ms. Carr and Bernard pressure her to remain brave, to speak truth.
Bernard provides Mary’s last known location. Gus begins to hope she can break the spell, bring Mary home.
Section 28: Sunnymede: Saturday
Gus visits the woodland squat where Mary lives. She finds Mary broken, paranoid, fiercely loyal to Jean.
Mary reports Jean’s warnings: Gus laughed at her portrait; Gus is a “fame-hungry hanger-on.”
Mary accuses Gus of touching her against her will in Rome. Jean “warned” her. Mary answers Jean’s call. Gus watches her turn away.
Section 29: Guest v. Finbow: Day Six (Witness H)
Gus takes the stand as “Witness H.” She confirms she photographed Anna’s home and legal documents for Jean.
Cross-examination reveals hundreds of unanswered calls Gus placed after Jean ghosted her. Gus encounters Anna in the courtroom atrium.
Anna treats her as a stranger.
Section 30: Guest v. Finbow: Day Six (The Park)
Jean corners Gus in a park, attempting intimidation. She threatens to share “vicious” things Gus said about her parents during sessions.
Gus records the entire encounter on her phone. She finally holds collateral. Gus strikes a deal: she will sabotage her own testimony if Jean leaves Mary and the baby alone.
Section 31: Guest v. Finbow: Day Seven (The Stand)
Gus returns to the stand. She corrects her testimony: she spied for Jean willingly, of her own accord.
She confesses Jean convinced her Mary’s love was real and the Finbows were blocking it. Gus sabotages the defense’s case, fulfilling her secret deal.
The judge labels her “wholly unreliable” and “meddlesome.”
Part Five: Aftermath
Section 32: Stoke: December (The Verdict)
The court rules against Anna Finbow. Jean’s methods are “unconventional” but not proven cultic. Gus returns to Stoke, the scandal grafted to her name.
A postcard arrives: Mary with her newborn daughter.
Mary sends the portrait she painted of Gus in Rome, years delayed. Gus understands: they were all predators. But there is now room for an honest beginning.
Section 33: New Year’s Eve
Anna sends Gus an anonymous, spiteful email. Gus reaches toward her parents, finding new value in their consistency.
Mary lives on a canal boat, a “continuous cruiser.” Lawrence Melrose is dismissed from the academy. More victims have come forward.
Section 34: Five Months Later (Epilogue)
Gus attends a Melrose Academy fundraiser. Lucy Ayres is buying her late daughter Oriel’s final works.
Lucy shares news: the police have reopened Jean Guest’s file under new coercive control laws. Gus hands Lucy her phone—the recording of Jean’s witness intimidation.
Criminal evidence, delivered. Gus chooses to restart the tape on her own terms.
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