Tuck Everlasting

Tuck Everlasting Summary | Plot Summary

The book opens with an analogy of a Ferris wheel, the seasons and life. Everything is a cycle and everything is changing, even when some things will return to nearly what they were before, they are never quite the same. The prologue also hints at the chance of people meeting and changing the outcome of all involved. It sets the stage for the reader to be carried away.

Winnie Foster feels trapped and dreams of the day she can gain freedom from her family. She thinks of running away, but backs out at the last minute, knowing she has nowhere to go and no one to help her. In a way, her dream is realized when she runs into Jesse Tuck.

Jesse, his brother Miles and his mother, Mae, kidnap Winnie. She is not scared and does not yell for help. Although she wants to go home, she is finally getting to experience an adventure, freedom; she decides to go without hesitation.

They pass a stranger but don't give him any thought as the group makes its way to a small river so they can talk a little more to Winnie. Then they proceed to the home that Mae shares with her husband and their sons, when they are home. The stranger has decided to follow them.

Angus Tuck greets Mae and Winnie at the door. He is excited to see a child that can change and grow. After they all eat, he takes Winnie out on the pond in a rowboat and tells her why he feels their lives are cursed. Mae, too, gives Winnie the feeling their lives are cursed. In the course of the next few hours, Jesse discloses his perception that their lives are actually blessed, while Miles continually changes his mind.

During this time, the stranger has put into motion circumstances that cannot be stopped. He takes over the Foster's woods, where Winnie met the Tucks and leads the constable to the Tuck's home. The stranger tries to take Winnie back to her family by force. Mae however, decides he is not going anywhere and hits him in the head with the butt of a shotgun. The constable sees this and takes Mae to jail and Winnie home.

Winnie knows it is her fault that Mae is in jail and wants to help. She gets the chance when Jesse comes to her fence to talk with her privately. He asks her several times to drink from the spring when she reaches the age of seventeen, so they can be married and travel the world. She does not answer, but does give him an idea that will help with their escape. She will replace Mae in the jail and give them time to get away.

She meets up with Jesse on the night of the jailbreak and they make the switch. She hears the sounds of the music box drifting into the night. When she is discovered in the cell in the morning, the constable is livid. He yells at her, but eventually turns her over to her parents. Although they understand why she did it, they confine her to the yard and house. She pays for what she did, but at least her friends, the Tucks, are safe.

Seventy years later, Mae and Tuck return to Treegap. Everything has changed, but they find the headstone of their beloved Winnie, who chose life and death over immortality.