Looking for Jane

Heather Marshall’s Looking for Jane is a historical fiction novel published in Canada and the United Kingdom in 2022 and the US in 2023. The story follows three main characters living in Toronto from the 1960s to the 2010s. All three women are deeply impacted by the struggle for reproductive rights in Canada, their lives becoming intertwined with a secret network of volunteers and health care providers known as the Janes, who risk arrest and other dangers to provide illegal abortion services. Though fictional, the novel is based on true events and organizations from the US and Canada during the latter half of the 20th century. In addition to Bodily Autonomy and Reproductive Rights, the novel also explores themes of Motherhood as both Universal and Personal and Justice Under Unjust Systems.

This guide refers to the American version of the text, published by Atria Books in February 2023.

Content Warning: The source material contains descriptions of abortion, miscarriage, death by suicide, and sexual assault; the guide also quotes an instance of misogynistic language.

Plot Summary

In a Prologue set in 2010, a letter is misdelivered to Thompson’s Antiques and Used Books in Toronto. The letter was intended for Nancy Mitchell, who lives in the apartment above the shop. The letter is from Nancy’s adoptive mother, Frances Mitchell. Frances wrote the letter to tell her daughter that she was adopted; she planned for Nancy to receive it after Frances’s death. The envelope also contains a short note written by Nancy’s birth mother, Margaret (Maggie) Roberts, who became pregnant as a teen in the 1960s and had to give her baby up for adoption (Maggie named her baby Jane, but the Mitchells renamed her Nancy).

The rest of the novel unfolds in rotating points of view. Part 1 begins with a chapter from the perspective of the first of the three protagonists, Angela Creighton. It is 2017, and Angela works at Thompson’s Antiques and Used Books. There, she finds Frances’s letter and is deeply moved by it. She is adopted herself and empathizes with all of the women the letter mentions. She decides to find Nancy to deliver the letter to her. Angela and her wife, Tina, are in the midst of fertility treatments in the hopes of Angela becoming pregnant.

In 1960, the second point-of-view character and protagonist, Evelyn Taylor, is being admitted to St. Agnes’s Home for Unwed Mothers. She became pregnant after having sex with her fiancé, who died of a heart attack shortly afterward. The nun who checks her in, Sister Mary Teresa, is unkind, and the home is unwelcoming, though Evelyn becomes friends with her roommate, Margaret (Maggie) Roberts. Evelyn is informed that she will have to give her baby up for adoption and work and live in the home for three months after giving birth. Before her baby is born, Evelyn discovers that the home is selling the children to adoptive families. She longs to find a way to escape with Maggie but goes into labor before finding a way out. Maggie’s child is born around the same time, and upon returning from the hospital, the women are forced to give their babies up. They hide notes in the baby blankets, and Maggie also hides a pair of baby booties that she knitted. A few weeks after Evelyn is separated from her baby, one of the nuns tells her that her baby has died.

The final protagonist is Nancy. It is the summer of 1979 in Toronto, and Nancy is sneaking out of the house to accompany her cousin, Clara, who is getting an illegal abortion. A man in a basement apartment carries out the procedure, and Clara faints on the train home; Nancy realizes Clara is bleeding profusely. Nancy rushes Clara to the hospital, where a female doctor tells her to seek out “Jane” if she or her friends ever need similar help in the future. The doctor is referring Nancy to the “Jane Network,” an underground network of doctors and volunteers working to provide safe, secret abortions for women. The next year, Nancy discovers that she is adopted. She searches her parents’ bedroom and finds a pair of baby booties along with a short note from her birth mother.

In Part 2, Angela and Tina discover that Angela is pregnant. Angela continues her search for Nancy and Margaret, wanting to connect them and give Nancy the letter from Frances. In her search, Angela finds an obituary for Margaret Roberts as well as a book written by Dr. Evelyn Taylor. Tina happens to have a connection with Evelyn through her job at the university. Angela asks Tina to introduce them.

Evelyn’s narrative jumps forward 10 years. Evelyn has since attended medical school and become a doctor. She protests against laws that ban abortions and offers clandestine abortions out of her medical practice. At the encouragement of the nurse who works with her, Alice, Evelyn becomes involved with the Jane Network, which connects doctors with patients who need abortions.

Nancy discovers that she is pregnant and seeks an abortion. With the help of the Jane Network, she makes an appointment with Evelyn and Alice. The clinic is raided during Nancy’s appointment, but the Janes’ precautions pay off, and the police find no evidence. Later, Nancy runs into Evelyn and expresses interest in volunteering for the Janes. This begins a long working relationship between Nancy and Evelyn.

In Part 3, Angela is delighted to find that she is pregnant with twins. She meets with Evelyn for the first time. Angela has not located Nancy and asks if Evelyn, as Maggie’s roommate from St. Agnes’s, would be willing to meet Nancy when she locates her. Evelyn agrees.

In 1984, Nancy gets engaged to her boyfriend, Michael, who doesn’t know about her work with the Janes. He also does not know about her abortion or that she is adopted. Three years pass. They marry in 1987, and Nancy becomes pregnant with their daughter. The police arrest Nancy and Evelyn in another clinic raid. In the police van, the women eat the patient roster so that there is no evidence of their work, and the police release them without further harm.

Part 4 opens in 1988, the year abortion was legalized in Canada. Evelyn and Nancy celebrate that their work with the Janes is no longer necessary. In 2010, Nancy’s adoptive mother, Frances, dies. Nancy and Michael have been divorced for a few years.

All three narrative perspectives meet in 2017, when Angela finally succeeds in reaching Nancy. She sends Nancy the letter from Frances, the note from Maggie, Maggie’s obituary, and an article about St. Agnes’s. After some hesitation, Nancy agrees to meet up with Evelyn. However, before the meeting takes place, Evelyn reveals her true identity to Angela (and thus to readers) as well: She is actually Maggie Roberts, who assumed her friend’s name after Evelyn died at St. Agnes’s. This makes “Evelyn” Nancy’s mother.

The narrative jumps back to 1961 and St. Agnes’s Home for Unwed Mothers. Maggie discovers Evelyn’s suicide notes and her body. Maggie stabs (but does not kill) Sister Teresa before running away to her brother’s house. She plans to die by suicide, but her brother finds her, and she tells him everything that happened at St. Agnes’s. He is remorseful and promises to help her build a new life. They publish an obituary, and she decides to take on Evelyn’s name.

Evelyn realizes that she has been working alongside her daughter for years without knowing. The two finally reunite with Angela’s help.