So distracted by this network of troubles, Winnie fails to see how sick her brother really is. However, she soon discovers Nigel is seeing another woman. Terrified her past has come back to destroy her, Winnie tries to reestablish control over her life by fixing her marriage. Winnie discovers them and worries someone knows her secret and will turn her in. Over the course of several weeks, Juno leaves clues of her investigation around the house. Convinced they are talking about Samuel, Juno becomes determined to discover the truth and return Samuel to his real family. One night she overhears Winnie and Nigel discussing an infant Winnie stole years ago. While concealed inside, she listens carefully to the family's movements and conversations. Though she had not planned to stay, she makes the closet, and the crawl space beneath, her new home. One day she sneaks into their house and hides in the closet.

She starts following them on their walks, listening to their conversations.

After years on the street, Juno first encounters Winnie, Nigel, and Samuel in the park near their house. Meanwhile, a homeless woman named Juno, squats inside the family's hall closet. When her unstable alcoholic brother, Dakota, comes to stay with her family, tensions between Dakota and Nigel threaten to undo the family. She channels all of her energy into being a wife and mother, desperate to disassociate from her dark past. Not long later, Winnie miraculously gets pregnant with Samuel. He buries the baby in the crawl space under their house. At home, she begs Nigel to help her cover the crime. On her way home, she gets into an accident and the infant dies. Shortly after the baby is born, Winnie steals him from his mother. Winnie becomes even more involved with Josalyn's life when she discovers Josalyn is pregnant. What begins as well-intentioned protectiveness over Josalyn, soon turns to obsession. While at Illuminations, she meets Josalyn, an 18-year-old with a troubled past. At times she fears if she only took the job to prove to Nigel that she is a good person. Her social work at Illuminations Mental Health does not thoroughly satisfy her longings.

Six miscarriages later, Winnie is distraught and hopeless. They find a beautiful old house near the park, and begin trying for a baby. Though the novel shifts frequently between past and present, the following summary employs a largely linear structure.Īfter Winnie meets and falls in love with Nigel, she is convinced she is on her way to creating the perfect life. In Tarryn Fisher's novel The Wrong Family, the third person narrator alternates between Winnie and Juno's perspectives. The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Fisher, Tarryn.

The wrong family tarryn fisher summary