Plot Summary (part-by-part)

by Unknown 10:59 PM 4 comments

Part 1:

As the story begins, it is told through the perspective of Lisa Hill. One day, they had received a phone call from a coast guard that changed the lives of Lisa and her family. Jimmy, Lisa’s brother is lost at sea without a trace of his boat or his fellow employee, Josh, under mysterious circumstances. The household is tense with thoughts of Jimmy’s disappearance. Lisa’s parents, Gladys and Albert, then depart for a flight to Namu, where it is believed Jimmy had disappeared, to aid in the search. Meanwhile, Lisa stays at home in the care of her Aunt Edith.

With the thoughts of Jimmy’s disappearance fresh in her mind, Lisa experiences many flashbacks in regards to Jimmy and her childhood. As the days past, her present life is intertwined with these flashbacks, as she reflects on how these memories lead to her life now. Many of her flashbacks also included Mick, most of which were rather joyful. In some of her flashbacks, she is reminded of people and things she had seen, but nobody else had. Memories of a red-haired man, tiny hairy man, and a father and son waving at her. All of these memories gave her a feeling of uncertainty, these memories felt like dreams connecting her to another world. The day Jimmy had disappeared, Lisa had had an uneasy feeling throughout the day, she also had a blurry dream about Jimmy being at Monkey Beach.

She had a dreamy day, but to brighten things up she receives a call from her parents in regards to discovering a life boat off the shore. With the hopes of Jimmy being alive, Lisa borrows her father’s motorboat and sets off on a long journey to reunite with her parents, and possibly Jimmy.

Part 2:

Lisa talks about Uncle Mick’s funeral in one of her flashbacks. It’s mentioned that Lisa came across one of Mick’s old friends, Barry. After the service, Lisa and her family and friends arrive at Ma-ma-oo’s house. When Lisa joins Barry for a smoke, he goes on to tell Lisa what he knows about Mick’s life. Shortly after, Tab informs Lisa that she and her mother, Aunt Trudy, will be moving to Vancouver. While Lisa is hanging out with ma-ma-oo, tree spirits are mentioned and a description of a chief tree spirit is given. Realizing that the little man she sees matches the description of a chief tree spirit, she casually asks what seeing a chief tree spirit would represent. She ends up telling ma-ma-oo about how she’s capable of seeing spirits and Lisa finds out that her mother possesses the same ability but instead, chooses to ignore it. Lisa begins falling into depression as she returns back to school while she continues to mourn the loss of her uncle. To make things worse, Frank (a boy she had previously fought with) had been expelled from his previous school and had transferred to Lisa’s, making Lisa his victim.

After her friendship with Erica broke apart, Erica and her friends started to bully Lisa, which only added to Lisa’s depression. Lisa begins hanging out with Frank and the boys after a new friendship is built between Frank and Lisa because she had started a fight with one of Erica’s friends, Big Lou. The relationship between Jimmy and Lisa continues to worsen. Lisa runs into Tab on her way home when Tab had hitchhiked back to Kitamaat but she is quickly sent back to Vancouver with Josh. Tab reacts rather strangely about being in a car with Josh, considering how she declared that she’d rather hitchhike back then get driven by Josh. Jimmy receives protection from Lisa and her friends after a sign is sent to her in regards to Jimmy being harmed, and shortly after, Alexis (Lisa’s cat) is discovered missing, so Lisa attempts to find her in various ways. She even attempts to use a ouija board, but had no luck with it. The ouija board perhaps hinted at something Josh had done that relates to a bed, when it spelled out Josh and bed.

On Valentine’s day, Lisa receives an anonymous card and she figures out that it was from Frank. She chooses to simply pretend she never got it and decides to not take action and confront Frank. Ma-ma-oo nearly dies from a heart attack after Lisa had been visited by the little red haired man and Jimmy continues to excel in his swimming. Months of smoking later, Lisa’s mom finally busts her and forces her to quit. One day when Cheese and Lisa are hanging out, he asks Lisa out and claims that he knows she likes Frank and that apparently this can make Frank feel jealous. Lisa politely declines although Cheese was being extremely persistent. During a party that Lisa attends, Cheese drugs her drink and sexually assaults her after apologizing for past events. She blames the little man for not warning her and she is later offered help by the tree spirits to hurt Cheese, but she rejects their help. When Cheese informs Frank that he had sexual intercourse with Lisa, Frank visits Lisa for the sake of confirming what he had heard. Lisa claims that it had never happened and Frank then dismisses it. Lisa’s parents decide to bring her into the hospital for some tests when she begins to sleepwalk and had almost gotten hit by Aunt Kate’s car. After no problems could be found, Lisa began having visits with a shrink. One day at school, Lisa is called down to the office and her mother is there to pick her up, because ma-ma-oo had had a stroke. When ma-ma-oo returns home from the hospital, she begins seeing ghosts of her dead family members. Shortly after ma-ma-oo talks about death, Lisa receives another sign warning her that someone is about to die, but she chooses to ignore it. Only to find out that ma-ma-oo had died in a fire, leaving her over two hundred thousand dollars. In the present day, Lisa finally arrives at Monkey Beach.

Part 3:

Lisa goes to Monkey Beach and thinks back to when she and Jimmy were there together and back when she partied a lot. She has a flashback to when Tab had been caring for her during another one of her hangovers. When Tab states that she’s dead, Lisa goes in search for confirmation from Aunt Trudy, only to be comforted when Trudy says she had just been on the phone with Tab two days ago. Lisa is startled that Trudy will finally be going into rehab, but first she will be throwing one final, crazy party. At this party, Lisa encounters Frank and Josh, but is puzzled as to why Frank had been so cold towards Josh. Frank offers Lisa a ride home and is informed that Pooch had shot himself. Frank then offers to drive Lisa up to Kitamaat for Pooch’s funeral and she accepts. On the drive there, Adelaine tries to say something about why Pooch had killed himself, but is abruptly stopped.

Lisa, Frank and Adelaine are invited to a party. At the party, Lisa runs into her little brother, Jimmy. She is surprised when Jimmy explains to her that he had quit swimming due to an injury. Jimmy manages to convince Lisa to return home and visit her parents. Her mother persuades Lisa to stay and Lisa even decides to return to school. Karaoke’s birthday was coming up, Lisa and Jimmy had both been invited. While Karaoke is intoxicated, she comments on Josh and states that she would like to kick his ass someday. After the party, Jimmy and Karaoke are found missing. They are later discovered together by Lisa and that is when their relationship sprouted. Karaoke is invited over for dinner and it seems as though she is feeling slightly uncomfortable. Meanwhile, in present time, the spirits offer to help Lisa if she offers them “meat”. Shortly after this dinner, Karaoke departs, leaving Jimmy with many questions and a broken heart.

Lisa flashes back to when she had brought Jimmy to Monkey Beach to “recover” from the pain Adelaine had caused, only to leave them stranded.

Part 4:

In this section of the book, Lisa truly discovers and understands her spiritual powers as she is able to contact the Land of the Dead and her dead relatives. She is provided with implicit information regarding her power and its fatality that could result from lack of control. Throughout her journey to reunite with her parents, she is encountered by many of her past relatives and even makes an expedition to the Land of the Dead.  Following the discovery of her powers, she is casted back to reality and she realizes that her powers have always been connected to Monkey Beach.