It Ends with Us Summary: Plot, Characters and Ending
Lily, Ryle, Atlas, the journal and the cycle Lily decides to end
It Ends with Us follows Lily Bloom, a young woman who moves to Boston, opens a flower shop and falls in love with Ryle Kincaid, a brilliant, charming neurosurgeon. As their marriage turns frightening, her first love, Atlas Corrigan, reappears, and Lily is forced to face the same pattern she watched in her parents' home.
At the end Lily chooses to leave Ryle so that her daughter will never grow up the way she did.
How does It Ends with Us begin?
Lily, twenty-three, has just spoken at her father's funeral in Maine, unable to say anything good about him. Back in Boston she sits on a rooftop to think and meets Ryle, a surgeon who is there to cool off after a terrible day. They talk honestly, the way strangers sometimes do. He tells her he does not do relationships, only flings, and she tells him she wants more.
↑ Back to the topWho's who
| Character | Who they are |
|---|---|
| Lily Bloom | Narrator; opens a flower shop in Boston |
| Ryle Kincaid | A neurosurgeon who falls for Lily |
| Atlas Corrigan | Lily's first love, now a chef |
| Allysa | Ryle's sister, Lily's friend and employee |
| Marshall | Allysa's husband |
| Jenny Bloom | Lily's mother |
| Andrew Bloom | Lily's late father |
What is in Lily's old journal?
As a teenager, Lily wrote letters to the talk-show host Ellen DeGeneres in her diary. Rereading them, she relives the story of Atlas, a homeless boy she found sheltering in an empty house near her parents' home. She brought him food and clothes, they fell in love, and he left to join his uncle in Boston, promising to come back. The journal also shows what Lily saw at home: her father hurting her mother, and her mother staying.
↑ Back to the topWhat happens between Lily and Ryle?
Lily opens her shop, and Ryle's sister Allysa becomes her first employee and best friend. Ryle falls for Lily and changes his mind about relationships. They are happy, then one night he hurts her in a moment of anger and apologizes so sincerely that she forgives him. It happens again. Each time there is an explanation, and each time Lily, who swore she would never be her mother, finds herself making the same excuses.
Allysa tells Lily about a childhood tragedy in which Ryle's older brother died, which helps explain him without excusing him.
↑ Back to the topHow does Atlas return?
At a restaurant Lily runs into Atlas, now a successful chef with his own place in Boston. He notices the signs that something is wrong and tells her his door is always open. When Ryle finds Atlas's phone number hidden in her phone case, his worst outburst follows. Lily ends up with Atlas, who helps her get medical care and a safe place to stay.
↑ Back to the topHow does It Ends with Us end?
Lily discovers she is pregnant. She does not return to Ryle, but lets him be part of their daughter's life, and after the baby is born she asks for a divorce. She names her daughter Emerson, after Ryle's brother. Explaining her choice, she tells Ryle she is breaking the cycle: it ends with them.
In the last pages, more than a year later, Lily runs into Atlas on a Boston street, and the book closes on the promise of a fresh start.
↑ Back to the topMore about It Ends with Us
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