Summary
It is early March, one week away from Preston’s birthday. Dellarobia and Preston stand outside, watching a pair of monarchs flutter past. Dellarobia notes that their flight is good news, as it means they’ve woken up from the frigid winter and are demonstrating an interest in mating. She considers calling Ovid but remembers that she doesn’t have his phone number. The video of his interview with Tina had gone viral, and his newfound fame made him uncomfortable. He had left the house earlier without warning Dellarobia about where he was going or for how long.
Cub stops by and tells Dellarobia he’s going to take some things over to the church to donate. Dellarobia decides to go with him. Once they’re in the car, Dellarobia confronts Cub; she asks him why they never discuss the miscarriage, hinting at the idea that perhaps they had only gotten married because of the pregnancy. Cub is shocked but avoids her questions. She mentions that she had planned to go to college but Cub dismisses her, stating simply that what’s important is that they love each other now.
Dellarobia tells Cub that she can’t avoid the feeling that they aren’t right for each other—that he isn’t right for her. She explains that on the day she saw the butterflies, she had been planning to run out on their marriage. Cub accuses her of falling in love with Ovid, but Dellarobia doesn’t respond. As they conclude the conversation, he says that he wishes the butterflies had never come to their land.
Later that night, as Cub and Dellarobia lie in bed side-by-side, Dellarobia struggles to understand what she should do next. She doesn’t want to walk out on Cub but is frustrated by Cub’s lack of action, even after everything she’d told him in the car. After failing to fall asleep all night, Dellarobia gets up and decides to start her day. As she feeds Preston breakfast, they see a woman walking towards the house. The woman is wearing a beautiful skirt; Dellarobia thinks she resembles a fashion model. Dellarobia realizes that the woman is Juliet, Ovid’s wife. Ovid joins them and the three strike up a conversation.
Dellarobia invites Ovid and Juliet over for dinner. They tell Dellarobia about how they met in Mexico City at a conference on monarchs. Juliet is a folklorist and was studying the art that communities made about the monarchs. Cub, who also comes to dinner, remains silent for much of the meal. Over the course of the evening, Dellarobia feels acutely insecure in Juliet’s presence. She feels that Juliet is much more educated and fashionable than she is. After the evening concludes, Dellarobia realizes that what she saw between Ovid and Juliet—laughter, conversation, understanding—was what a real marriage looked like. She becomes aware that even though she’s been married to Cub for many years, they had never had a marriage like what Ovid and Juliet have.
The next morning, Cub, Bear, Hester, and Dellarobia attend church. After the service, the family sits down with Bobby Ogle to discuss the deal Bear made with the loggers. Bear refuses to back down, even when Bobby asks him to call the deal off. After Hester intervenes and tells Bear to listen to Bobby, Bear unexpectedly backs down and agrees to keep the mountain as it is. Bear, Bobby, and Cub head out to the mountain.
Hester and Dellarobia drive back home. Hester brings up the interview and interrogates Dellarobia about whether she really meant what she had allegedly said in the interview about wanting to kill herself. Dellarobia tries to explain that the video was edited to make it look like she said that even when she hadn’t. Dellarobia accuses Hester of not understanding her marriage and its complexities, but Hester surprises Dellarobia by revealing that she had been forced to give up her first son for adoption while Bear was serving in the Vietnam War. The baby had not been Bear’s and at the time, Hester hadn’t even been certain if she loved Bear. After the adoption, Bear and Hester never discussed the event; Bear agreed to marry Hester so long as they kept it a secret. Dellarobia asks Hester if she knows where her son is and Hester tells her that he still lives in the town. Suddenly, Dellarobia realizes who the son is: Bobby Ogle.
A few days later, it snows—uncharacteristic weather for the area. One of the ewes goes into premature labor and Dellarobia and Cub rush out to try and help. The ewe gives birth, but the lamb is stillborn. Dellarobia breaks down in tears.
Dellarobia and Cub return home. The monarchs have moved away from the mountain and onto the lawn, where the first buds of spring are beginning to rise. The butterflies slowly start to wake up, coming unfrozen after the prior week’s storm. She and Preston go outside to look at the butterflies. While they’re there, Dellarobia gives Preston a gift: a smartphone, so that he can search and learn things on his own. She explains that they’ll share it, and breaks the news that she, Preson, and Cordelia are going to move away to Cleary—away from Cub. She tells him that she’ll be going back to college and continuing to work in a lab.
A flood hits the town. Dellarobia steps outside and witnesses a group of birds flying away and, in the distance, the butterflies, rising up out of the mountain’s trees as the sun begins to emerge behind them.
Analysis
Juliet’s arrival forces Dellarobia to confront her feelings of dissatisfaction within her own marriage—feelings that, up until that point, she had been able to run away from and suppress. Juliet and Ovid’s marriage serves as a contrast to Dellarobia and Cub’s. As they eat dinner together, Dellarobia notices how the two genuinely seem interested in one another; how they care for each other and make each other more “themselves” than when they are alone. She witnesses how a couple can learn from one another, how their interests can complement each other’s and push them to learn more about the world instead of feeling held back or trapped within it.
After struggling with feeling guilty over her dissatisfaction, Dellarobia finally realizes that she and Cub should not have married in the first place. Their marriage came about after her first pregnancy and because of social pressures within their community, the two felt forced into marrying quickly and without thinking about whether they were actually compatible.
Dellarobia’s conversation with Hester, along with meeting Ovid and Juliet, also contributes to her realization that she needs to leave Cub. For a majority of her life, Dellarobia has felt judged by Hester. Hester constantly expressed disapproval of Dellarobia, making her feel unwelcome within their family. But when Hester reveals that she had a child before marrying Bear—a child that was conceived outside of her and Bear’s relationship—Dellarobia sees that she had misjudged Hester without taking a moment to consider that Hester's life may be more complicated than Dellarobia could understand.
Hester’s story about her first son, who turns out to be Bobby Ogle, also reinforces one of the underlying themes that runs throughout the novel: family secrets, kept under wraps because of a local culture that seeks to reinforce societal norms and appearances. Hester couldn’t leave Bear, especially after he had left to serve in the army, in part because it was expected that they would marry. Similarly, Dellarobia became “trapped” within her marriage to Cub because it was expected that they would marry after she became pregnant, even though neither of them was a good fit for the other.
The novel concludes with Dellarobia leaving Cub. After speaking with Hester and witnessing the birth of a dead lamb, which reminds Dellarobia of her own miscarriage, Dellarobia decides that even though leaving Cub will be terrifying, it’s something that she can’t keep putting off. The freedom she gains through her independence allows her to decide on returning to college and even buy a smartphone that she can share with Preston, which will allow both of them to learn more about the world. Ovid’s effect on both of them becomes tangible; his arrival helped both Dellarobia and Preston realize their love for science and learning, which Dellarobia plans on pursuing as she goes back to school.
