Beautiful Ugly

A week before her disappearance, Abby talks to the therapist about her desire to have children. She didn’t want children when she first married Grady, but her feelings changed. However, whenever she brings it up, he gets upset. She confesses that if she wants to make a change, she has to do it before it’s too late. The therapist encourages her to talk to Grady about everything before she leaves him.

Grady hears Abby’s baby crying before leaving The Croft. He speeds away, his mind reeling with questions. He’s convinced that Abby cheated on him, as he recently got a vasectomy. He still doesn’t know if Abby is Aubrey and wonders if he’ll ever stop seeing her ghost.

Grady arrives at Cora’s shop to ask about the ferry schedule. Cora insists he can’t leave because the island needs a resident author. Grady asks her to repeat herself, convinced he’s hearing her wrong. Before leaving, Cora reveals that they found Sandy, and she’s dead.

Driving home, Grady overhears the Trust talking about him on the walkie-talkie and worries everyone will blame him for Sandy’s death. Then he notices he’s out of gas, although the tank was half full earlier.

Grady heads back to Cora’s shop to ask about a gas station but decides to try using the phone booth instead. The line connects and he reaches Kitty. She’s again warning him to leave when the call cuts out.

Grady drives back through town. Finally, he decides to try calling Kitty from his mobile phone. It connects, but Kitty’s phone is off. Then Abby calls, but he only hears the ocean before the call drops.

Grady returns to the cabin in the dark. He packs up his things, puts Columbo in the car, and heads back to town. When he reaches the church, he’s shocked to see Sandy standing outside.

Sandy interrogates Grady about stealing the walkie-talkie and trying to leave the island. Then Abby emerges from the church, insisting she and Grady talk.

Abby tells Grady about the night she disappeared. She had planned to go home and tell him she wanted to leave him but then she saw a person lying in the road. They were wearing the same coat as Abby. When she saw their face, she discovered it was Grady.

Confused, Grady begs Abby to explain what’s happening. She pours him a drink and explains that the island is her home. She lived there until she was 10 and left shortly after the children died in the cave, a tragedy she thinks is her fault.

Abby tells Grady about her childhood. She and Sandy’s late daughter Isla were close. One day, when their substitute teacher was on duty but went to the pub, Abby suggested she and her classmates spend time together in the cave. She didn’t know about the tide and accidentally led the children to their deaths.

Afterward, the women islanders killed the substitute and refused to let any other men live there. She also confirms that Cora is Coraline, and Arabella is her daughter. Like them, everyone on Amberly has a difficult history and has run away from something. Abby was running away from Grady.

Abby pours herself another whiskey and meditates on what she’s going to tell Grady. She’s never told him the truth about her but now is the time.

Abby confirms that she’s married to Travers, Holly is her baby, and Grady isn’t the father. Grady begs for an explanation, insisting he still loves her. Abby scoffs, demanding to know why he tried to kill her.

The night of her disappearance, Grady pretended to be a dead person on the road. He was the one Abby tried to help on her drive home. He dressed in her coat and waited for her. When she went to check on him, he removed the coat, grabbed Abby, drugged her, put the coat on her, and threw her over the cliff road.

Grady cries and professes his love again. Then Kitty walks through the door.

Kitty insists that she and Grady need to talk. She commends him on his draft but reveals that she knows it’s Charles’s. She also knows about Abby’s history on the island. She launches into her story, explaining how she knew Abby’s mother.

Kitty explains that she was Charles’s agent and wife. She grew up on Amberly and moved back there years after settling in London, where she met Abby’s mother. After a family incident, Abby’s mother sent her to live with Kitty. Shortly thereafter, Kitty’s mom got sick, and she returned to Amberly to nurse her, bringing Abby along. Kitty’s mother died, and Abby’s mom died shortly thereafter.

A while later, Kitty and Charles’s marriage began to crumble. While Kitty was away, the substitute teacher put the island children in harm’s way. Abby sought out Charles’s help, but he ignored her because he was writing. After the tragedy, he blamed himself and died by suicide. Abby left the island not long after and didn’t return until a year ago.

Recently, the Trust informed Kitty that Abby was back and had a child. When Abby introduced Kitty to Holly and told her what Grady had done, Kitty swore to destroy him.

Grady demands to know how Abby got pregnant. Kitty explains that she was getting IVF. Grady cries again when Kitty scolds him, insisting he’s a good person. Kitty argues she doesn’t care if he’s good or bad; she just needs him to write books that sell.

Kitty insists that Grady needs to stay on the island if he wants to live. The women islanders want him to be their resident author. They’ll allow him to live if he donates the book money to the community so they don’t have to reopen the island to tourists year-round. Kitty reminds him this is his only option, as he has nothing else beyond Amberly.

A year later, Grady has finished and sold his novel, Beautiful Ugly. He’s been living on the island the entire time. He moves through town one day, greeting the islanders and happily accepting their congratulations on his novel. Back at the cabin, he settles in for the night, missing Abby. When he opens his eyes, he’s shocked to discover he’s in a coffin. Instead of screaming, he cries. Gradually, it becomes more difficult for him to breathe.