The May House Summary: Three Sisters, One Secret
TL;DR: The May House by Jillian Cantor: An Introduction
Every May, three sisters return to their grandmother’s white Victorian house on Coronado Island, California. They have done it for nearly twenty years, honoring a promise made around a backyard firepit in 1985.
Then, on a sweltering Sunday in May 2019, the oldest sister does not arrive. Jillian Cantor’s The May House follows Julia, Emily, and Nora May as they keep, break, and finally confront the terms of that childhood vow.
The novel moves between their past May visits and the present-day search for answers, tracking four decades of marriage, motherhood, career setbacks, and long-suppressed grief tied to a house on Ocean Boulevard.
- The setup: Three sisters — Julia, Emily, and Nora May — spend one week each May at their grandmother Vera’s Coronado beach house, a pact they made as children.
- The hook: In May 2019, Julia fails to show up for the first time in nineteen years. Emily and Nora search for her.
- The structure: A dual timeline that alternates between May visits from 1985 to 2018 and the 2019 search, closing with a 2025 epilogue.
- Core threads: Sisterhood, a mother believed dead, three miscarriages kept secret, a lifelong friendship with the boy next door, and a Broadway career built on rejection.
- The payoff: The search for Julia uncovers a hidden family truth and forces each sister to stop protecting the others from it.
Who Will Enjoy This Book?
The May House is contemporary women’s fiction built around family relationships rather than suspense or action. It may appeal to readers who follow character-driven domestic dramas with multiple timelines and shifting points of view.
It also suits readers drawn to coastal settings, sisterhood narratives, and stories about grief that unfolds slowly across decades.
Those who prefer fast plots or a single narrator may find the pacing slower and the emotional focus narrower.
Characters in The May House
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Julia May | The oldest sister, a family law attorney, wife to Ted, and mother to Veronica. |
| Emily May | The middle sister, an ocean museum curator who lives in Florida with her wife Cecile. |
| Nora May | The youngest sister, a Broadway musical actress and the family’s “Tiny Songbird.” |
| Grandma Vera | The sisters’ theatrical grandmother, owner of the Ocean Boulevard house and creator of the annual May pact. |
| Nate | The sisters’ next-door neighbor in Coronado, manager of the rental house, and Julia’s lifelong love interest. |
| Meredith May | The sisters’ biological mother, believed dead since Nora’s birth. |
| Robert “Bob” May | The sisters’ father in Chicago, who raised them alone. |
| Ted | Julia’s husband and eventual ex-husband, an attorney. |
| Veronica | Julia and Ted’s daughter. |
| Cecile (“Cee”) | Emily’s wife, a museum colleague and mother of twin boys, Mikey and Jim. |
| Mallory | Nate’s daughter, raised by him after her mother Heidi leaves. |
| Devlin St. Claire | A Hollywood actor who becomes Nora’s husband. |
| Becca | Nate’s former fiancée, who ends their engagement in 2005. |
| Heidi | Mallory’s birth mother. |
| Cara | Emily’s former romantic interest from Boston and Paris. |
| Leo Marks | A Broadway producer who helps Nora early in her career. |
| Grey | Grandma Vera’s deceased second husband, a retired navy admiral. |
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The May House Summary: The Deep Dive
Spoilers below.
In May 1985, Grandma Vera gathers her three granddaughters around a firepit in Coronado. She compares them to s’more ingredients: Nora the graham crackers, Emily the dark chocolate, Julia the marshmallow holding it all together.
Vera asks for a promise. The sisters swear they will return together for one week every May, no matter how old they get.
The girls grow up in Chicago with their father, Bob, believing their mother, Meredith, died of eclampsia after Nora’s birth. Each May, they travel to Coronado and grow close to Nate, the boy next door.
Nate and Julia exchange paper-airplane notes between bedroom windows. Nate’s mother’s terminal cancer intervenes, and their romance becomes a complicated friendship that neither fully abandons.
Vera dies in 1999 at eighty-two. She leaves the Ocean Boulevard house to her granddaughters on the condition that they use it together.
Julia, then a Georgetown law student, proposes converting the property into a weekly vacation rental while reserving the last week of May for the sisters. Nate agrees to manage it.
During that same visit, Julia opens the top-left drawer of the dining room armoire. She finds years of letters postmarked from Santa Monica, suggesting her mother may be alive, and packs them up.
She and Nate spend one night together. Julia insists they put the encounter “in the vault” and returns to Ted.
Emily had stumbled onto the same drawer years earlier, in 1993, while looking for a pain patch. She saw the letters and told no one.
Over the following decade, the sisters keep returning. Julia marries Ted, becomes a mother to Veronica, and suffers three miscarriages between 2004 and 2006, hiding all three.
The third miscarriage nearly kills her. Nate finds her, carries her to a hospital, and afterward drives her to Santa Monica at her request.
There, Julia looks through the window of 445 Ocean Lane and sees Meredith alive and content. She does not knock, and asks Nate to drive away.
Emily comes out as bisexual, moves to Florida, and eventually marries Cecile. Nora chases Broadway through canceled shows and a turbulent romance with actor Devlin St. Claire.
Bob’s lung cancer spreads to his brain, and in 2013 the sisters bring him to Coronado. On the porch, he asks Nate to look after Julia if she ever breaks, and Nate promises.
Bob dies in February 2014. Ted admits to inappropriate texts with a colleague and proposes a contract: stay married four years until Veronica leaves for college, then divorce.
In May 2018, a drunk Nora kisses Nate on his porch in front of Julia. Julia says she will never forget it, and a rift opens between them.
Then comes May 2019. Emily and Nora arrive to a hot house, a broken air conditioner, and no Julia.
Julia has never missed a year. She has always arrived first, printed schedule in hand.
The sisters learn from Julia’s law firm that she took an unexpected six-week leave after a serious professional error caused by burnout. She has also separated from Ted, and Veronica has left for college.
When pressed, Nate admits he recently drove to Santa Monica looking for her at the Ocean Inn. Emily finally tells Nora what she has known since she was seventeen: their mother did not die.
Emily and Nora borrow Nate’s truck and drive to Santa Monica. They find a disheveled Julia at the Ocean Inn.
Julia explains that she lost her phone on a cross-country drive and eventually confronted Meredith at an assisted-living facility near Burbank.
Meredith’s explanation is cold. She says she was depressed, unsuited to motherhood, and wanted to act, and she asks her daughters to keep pretending she is dead.
Nora visits Meredith herself and concludes her mother is a stranger. She rejects the suggestion that they are alike and walks away.
The sisters buy Julia a new phone, pick up s’mores supplies at Vons, and drive back to Coronado together.
There, they settle into their usual week without a printed schedule. Julia calls Veronica, and Emily calls Cecile to apologize and commit to therapy.
After Emily and Nora fly home, Julia sits on Nate’s porch and learns that Heidi is seeking full custody of Mallory.
Julia offers to take the case pro bono, decides to move to Coronado permanently, and finally tells Nate she has loved him since she was twenty.
He returns the confession.
Six years later, in May 2025, the week has grown into a ten-person reunion. Julia lives in Nate’s house and runs her own law firm on Orange Avenue.
Emily and Cecile arrive with their twin sons before they leave for college. Nora arrives with Devlin and Veronica.
The family gathers around the firepit for s’mores, and Jillian Cantor closes the novel on the same ritual that opened it, now carried by a much larger group.
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Summary by Chapter
Spoilers ahead. This section offers a brief look at each of the book’s 38 sections for readers who want to see how the story is structured. The May House contains a prologue, 36 numbered chapters, and an epilogue.
Prologue (1985) — Grandma Vera makes s’mores with her three granddaughters at the Coronado firepit. She compares each girl to an ingredient and asks them to promise they will return every May. The sisters agree.
Chapter 1 (2019) — Emily and Nora arrive in Coronado to find the house hot, the air conditioning broken, and Julia missing. Emily goes next door to Nate, while Nora notices Julia has not replied to the group text since January.
Chapter 2 (1990) — Fourteen-year-old Julia meets Nate on the beach after a year of exchanged notes. When the sisters are stung by a stingray, Nate carries young Nora home. Vera sends Julia to the dining room armoire, where she briefly glimpses a mysterious envelope.
Chapter 3 (1993) — Emily lets Nate teach her to surf out of sympathy for his mother’s cancer diagnosis. Sent to the armoire for a pain patch, she opens the wrong drawer and finds recent letters postmarked from Santa Monica. She tells no one and later accepts a drink invitation from a woman named Monica at Clayton’s.
Chapter 4 (1996) — Vera welcomes the sisters with her annual “May day!” greeting, lobster dinner, and s’mores. Nora watches Some Like It Hot with Vera and weeps over believing she caused her mother’s death. Nate invites Nora to a play, and she begins to feel attracted to him.
Chapter 5 (1999) — Vera dies at eighty-two and leaves the house to her granddaughters on the condition that they use it together. Julia flies out alone to handle the estate. She and Nate agree to rent the house weekly while reserving one week in May for the sisters, with Nate managing it.
Chapter 6 (2000) — Emily hides that she is unemployed after college. Nora is upset to find Vera’s furniture replaced with rental decor. During s’mores night, Emily comes out as bisexual and Nora reveals she plans to drop out and move to New York, then Julia announces she is pregnant.
Chapter 7 (2001) — Julia fires her nanny and brings baby Veronica to Coronado, straining things with Ted. Nora works as a singing waitress in Queens, and Emily meets a stranger named Cara during a flight delay. Nate takes Nora sailing and later walks the beach with Julia.
Chapter 8 (2019) — Mallory knocks on the door asking for Julia. Emily, still raw from a fight with Cecile over a past betrayal, returns to drink wine with Nora by the firepit. They discuss Julia’s divorce and grow more worried.
Chapter 9 (2002) — Julia plans an adults-only Coronado trip against Ted’s wishes. Nora spots a redhead named Becca on Nate’s porch, and Julia’s rigid schedule frustrates her sisters. Nora leaves early for an audition, and the argument ends with Julia threatening to cancel future trips.
Chapter 10 (2003) — Nora lands an ensemble role in a touring musical and hesitates to call Julia. Her sisters support her, and Bob attends a Detroit performance and urges a more practical degree. The May week passes smoothly, with no one mentioning the previous fight.
Chapter 11 (2004) — Julia miscarries at nine weeks and tells no one. Nora receives a save-the-date for Nate’s wedding to Becca, and Emily moves to Florida for a master’s degree. In Coronado, Becca claims a migraine after a fight, leaving Nate to cook for the sisters and walk with Julia.
Chapter 12 (2005) — Nora goes to Coronado alone for Nate’s wedding and learns Becca called it off a week earlier. Nate insists she stay in his guest room. They eat ice cream at MooTime and talk about heartbreak and Vera, and each encourages the other’s dreams.
Chapter 13 (2019) — Emily wakes with dread, gets coffee at Clayton’s, and sees a seagull on the porch that reminds her of Vera. She texts Cecile that she misses her. Nora calls Veronica, who reveals Julia once disappeared for weeks years earlier, prompting a call to Julia’s law firm.
Chapter 14 (2006) — Julia bleeds heavily at home and loses a third pregnancy while alone in May. Nora opens off-off-Broadway as Juliet with neither sister present and meets an older woman in the rain who resembles Julia. Nate rescues Julia and drives her to Santa Monica, where she looks through a window at her living mother and leaves.
Chapter 15 (2007) — Nora receives a birth announcement for Nate’s daughter, Mallory, born to Heidi. Emily requests time off from her Tampa museum job. In Coronado, Nora and Emily meet Heidi and the baby while Julia stays on the couch and packs the schedule with outside trips.
Chapter 16 (2008) — Emily declines a lunch invitation from Cara. Julia returns to family law part-time and feels distant from Ted. Emily reveals that Heidi abandoned Nate and Mallory overnight; Julia offers Nate legal help and agrees to keep their Santa Monica trip in “the vault,” while Nora’s Broadway show is canceled for lost funding.
Chapter 17 (1999) — Julia clears out Vera’s house and finally opens the top-left drawer, finding fifteen years of Santa Monica letters. She ships them home and, before leaving, spends one night with Nate. She tells him to put it in the vault and returns to Ted.
Chapter 18 (2009) — Julia finds Nate reading educational psychology textbooks on his porch while raising two-year-old Mallory. She had seen a suspicious text on Ted’s phone before leaving, and he claims he was working. Emily spends the night helping Cecile care for her sick twin sons.
Chapter 19 (2010) — Nora is cast in a movie opposite Devlin St. Claire and shoots in LA. He invites her to his Malibu home for tacos, and they bond over their real backgrounds. In September, he surprises her at her Brooklyn apartment and kisses her.
Chapter 20 (2019) — Julia’s assistant Robin tells Nora and Emily that Julia took a scheduled six-week leave through July. Nate arrives to fix the air conditioning and mentions a recent conference in LA. The sisters suspect he is being evasive.
Chapter 21 (2011) — A Page Six blurb pairs Nora with Devlin, and Bob calls her with a malignant lung tumor diagnosis. Nora stays with Devlin in Malibu before sisters’ week, and Julia is comforted by Nate on the porch. A false news article ends Nora and Devlin’s relationship in anger.
Chapter 22 (2012) — Nora lands the starring role in the musical Hera for a Boston tryout. Cecile tells Emily she wants a divorce because she is in love with her. By the firepit, Julia says her biggest regret is not giving Veronica a sister, and shortly after, Hera announces its closing.
Chapter 23 (2019) — Emily and Nora press Nate after he returns from breakfast. Nora accuses him of lying about LA, and he admits he went to Santa Monica. Emily asks whether he went to see “who” is there.
Chapter 24 (2013) — The sisters bring Bob to Coronado and house him in Vera’s downstairs bedroom. He greets the ocean and whispers an apology to Vera for keeping the secret. One morning he asks Nate to look after Julia if things get bad, and Nate promises.
Chapter 25 (2014) — Bob dies in February, and the sisters bury him in Chicago. Emily brings Cecile for support while Julia and Ted’s marriage deteriorates privately. In May, Mallory loses a tooth and Julia invites Nate to the annual Friday dinner.
Chapter 26 (2015) — Cecile proposes to Emily, and they plan a Florida wedding. In Coronado, Julia tells Emily that honesty is the key to marriage. Ted admits to inappropriate texts and proposes staying married four more years until Veronica leaves for college, and Hera closes on Broadway.
Chapter 27 (2019) — Nate admits he drove to Santa Monica and looked for Julia at the Ocean Inn. Emily states her suspicion that Meredith is alive, and Nora demands to know everything.
Chapter 28 (2016) — Emily searches for 445 Ocean Lane in Santa Monica and finds no matching address. She runs into Cara at the pier, who apologizes for their past. In Coronado, the sisters take Mallory to Belmont Park, and in November Nora reconnects with Devlin in New York.
Chapter 29 (2017) — Ted asks to amend the divorce contract to allow outside dating, and Julia refuses. Nora arrives in Coronado after seeing Devlin’s engagement news, and Nate tells Julia his heart starts beating again every May. In autumn, Emily evacuates to Julia’s house and finds the box of letters.
Chapter 30 (2018) — Julia brings eighteen-year-old Veronica to Coronado after graduation, and Veronica confides she wants to defer college. On the final night, a drunk Nora kisses Nate on his porch in front of Julia, who declares she will never forget it.
Chapter 31 (2019) — Nate explains that Julia had a traumatic miscarriage in 2006 and that he drove her to Santa Monica, where she saw Meredith alive. Nora is overwhelmed with grief and rage at both the secret and the abandonment. Nate lends Emily his truck.
Chapter 32 (2006) — Julia tells Nate about the letters and asks him to drive her to Santa Monica. They ride the pier before finding 445 Ocean Lane, where Julia watches her mother through a window. She chooses not to confront her, and they spend the night at the Ocean Inn before she leaves quietly.
Chapter 33 (2019) — Emily and Nora drive Nate’s truck through Memorial Day traffic toward Santa Monica. Emily reflects on how Veronica’s departure and Julia’s divorce set this in motion. They arrive at the motel praying Julia is inside.
Chapter 34 (2019) — Ted moves out in January to live with a young paralegal. Burnt out, Julia makes a major legal error and is placed on forced leave. She drives cross-country, loses her phone, confronts Meredith near Burbank, and checks into the Ocean Inn alone.
Chapter 35 (2019) — Emily and Nora knock until a disheveled Julia opens the door, and the three embrace. Nora confronts Meredith herself and rejects her claim that they are alike. Emily comforts Julia about the miscarriages, and the sisters buy a phone and s’mores supplies and drive home.
Chapter 36 (2019) — Back in Coronado, the week runs without a printed schedule. Julia calls Veronica, and Emily calls Cecile to apologize and commit to therapy. After the others leave, Julia learns Heidi is seeking custody of Mallory, offers to take the case, decides to move to Coronado, and confesses her love to Nate.
Epilogue (2025) — Six years later, the annual week has become a ten-person reunion. Julia lives in Nate’s house and runs her own firm on Orange Avenue, while Emily, Cecile, Nora, Devlin, and Veronica all return. The family gathers around the firepit for s’mores.
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What Drives the Story
| Theme | How the book presents it |
|---|---|
| Sisterhood and the May pact | The sisters return to Coronado every May for nearly two decades because of a promise made to Vera in 1985. The ritual continues through divorces, miscarriages, career failures, and a year-long rift. |
| Motherhood and absence | Meredith leaves her three daughters and is declared dead; Julia suffers three miscarriages and fears failing Veronica; Emily hesitates before becoming a parent to Cecile’s twins. |
| Secrets and “the vault” | Emily hides the Santa Monica letters for twenty-six years, Julia hides her miscarriages and her meeting with Meredith, and Julia and Nate suppress their feelings for each other. |
| Grief and remembrance | The sisters mourn Vera and Bob, scatter ashes at sea, and notice birds that they associate with the dead. The house itself functions as a continuing tie to Vera. |
| Identity and personal ambition | Nora pursues Broadway through canceled shows and years of rejection, Meredith abandons her family to act, and Emily builds a career in museum work. |
Quotes from The May House
“Sisters make the best friends in the world.” — Marilyn Monroe
“Good,” Grandma Vera said. “A promise is a promise. And I’m going to hold you to it.”
“You’re not trouble, Nora. You’re a star,” Nate said. “You were always going to be a star.”
“Everything and everyone changes, Jules. That’s just life.”
“The darkest night always gives us the brightest stars.”
“Ever since I was twenty, Nate, and you told me on that beach right over there that you couldn’t love me… I’ve been trying so hard not to love you.”
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Books Like The May House
The Paper Palace by Miranda Cowley Heller — A coastal family drama built on decades of secret love and hidden trauma. It shares the summer-house setting and the long-delayed reckoning with a life-defining choice.
The Unsinkable Greta James by Jennifer E. Smith — A novel about grief, a parent’s death, and an artistic career under pressure. It echoes the book’s focus on siblings processing loss together.
Summer Sisters by Judy Blume — A multi-decade saga of a recurring summer bond between women. It matches the structure of annual returns to one coastal place.
In Five Years by Rebecca Serle — A story centered on loyalty and friendship through sudden upheaval. It shares the emphasis on a bond that survives tragedy.
The Jetsetters by Amanda Eyre Ward — A multi-generational family reunion story holding lingering secrets. It parallels the sisters’ trip and the buried history they carry.
Book Details at a Glance
- Genre & Subgenre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction / Domestic Drama / Family Saga
- Core Narrative Tropes: Secret family history, sisterly reunion pact, dual timeline, childhood friends-to-lovers, runaway mother mystery
- Tone & Atmosphere: Lyrical, nostalgic, reflective, bittersweet, coastal with lingering emotional tension
- Primary Conflict: Julia’s disappearance in May 2019, which uncovers suppressed grief, a failing marriage, and the truth that the sisters’ mother did not die in childbirth
- Pacing Style: Non-linear, alternating between historical May visits (1985–2018) and the 2019 search
- Book Structure: Prologue (1985), 36 numbered chapters, Epilogue (2025)
- ISBN: 978-1668091159 (ISBN-10: 1668091151)
- Pages: 368
- Publisher: Atria Books
