The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox

The novel cuts to a woman named Iris. She walks her dog along the street in the New Town section of Edinburgh, Scotland. She stops in front of her vintage clothing shop and kicks aside a beer can, spraying liquid on the shop door. Iris steps inside the store and notices a curious letter in her stack of mail. She scans the letter, written via typewriter, and notices the name Euphemia Lennox (Esme)—but is too distracted with the messy door to read the letter and sets it aside. After washing the door, Iris stops to look at the city, thinking, “Sometimes this street feels so deep cut into the city it’s as if Iris is leading a subterranean existence” (11). Thinking about the letter, Iris wonders about the name Euphemia—but assumes she’s a customer. Later, Iris sits in a bar with her brother Alex, waiting for Alex’s wife Fran to arrive. Iris and Alex have a playful relationship and frequently touch each other as the former tells the latter about a customer’s invoice that called her a witch. Fran arrives at the bar, fresh from getting highlights at a salon; her scalp is sore from the painful process. She watches Iris and Alex from afar, noticing their shared drink and Alex’s hand on Iris’s wrist. Fran examines Iris’s clothing and skinny frame. She approaches the table and finds the pair laughing hysterically; she asks what they’re joking about, but they brush her off.

At the same time across town, Esme stares out a window, watching women load luggage into cars and drive away. A woman cries as a man puts her suitcase into the trunk of a car. Esme takes one last look before a man tells her that it’s time to leave.

Back in her shop, Iris unpacks a vintage red designer dress and displays it on the mannequin in the shop window. She adds a handbag and adjusts the position of the mannequin; secretly, she wants to keep the dress for herself. She calls her brother Alex, but when Fran answers the phone, she hangs up without speaking. Later, Iris helps a man select a gift for his wife’s birthday. Iris’s phone rings, and a man asks if she has time to speak about Euphemia Lennox. She doesn’t know the name, so the caller apologizes, thinking he has the wrong number. Iris helps her customer select a handbag and wraps the gift while pondering what his wife is like. After closing the store, Iris drives to the Old Town section of Edinburgh, Scotland to visit her lover.

Iris met Luke, a tall, handsome lawyer, two months ago at the wedding of a friend. After they make love, Luke dresses and calls his wife Gina, claiming he will be home late due to work. He begs Iris to stay and have dinner with him, but she refuses. He claims he is ready to end his marriage and be with her, but Iris says she doesn’t want to discuss the issue and must leave to visit her brother. Luke is angry that she’s leaving him to be with Alex. Iris recalls the first time Luke and Alex met: Her brother showed up at her flat without calling, and Luke was there. The two exchanged an awkward, icy conversation and Alex appeared to be intimidated by Luke’s size. Over drinks, Alex explained to Luke that he and Iris are not blood-related, and that Iris’s mother is married to his father. While Luke was out of the room, Alex was critical of him and asked Iris about the nature of their relationship. Iris assured him that they were not serious before Luke returned to the table.

The narrative returns to Esme’s memories of India. She and her sister Kitty should be paying attention to their teacher Miss Evans, but instead make faces at each other and try to staunch their laughter. Esme plots a way to escape and asks Miss Evans if she can be excused to use the restroom. Instead, Esme trots off to the kitchen, following the smell of chai. She goes to the nursery where Jamila cooks, while her baby brother Hugo plays at her nanny’s feet. Esme adores her brother and begs to hold him, but Jamila says he is too heavy—so she settles for nuzzling his face while he plays with her braids. Jamila tells Esme that she should be at school, and they overhear Miss Evans informing Esme and Kitty’s mother that she disappeared from class.

Esme’s memory shifts to sitting at a dining hall table in front of an oily stew. She tells herself that she will refuse to eat everything on the plate except for the bread without margarine. A woman wearing a scarf around her head asks who is coming for her. The woman states that her daughter is coming for a visit, and Esme responds that her parents are coming. A cook overhears and smugly says Esme’s parents are dead. Esme says she knows, but the cook walks away in disgust. Believing this memory isn’t quite right, Esme’s mind shifts back to childhood. From her bed, she watches Kitty pack for a visit to the country. Esme herself can’t go because her mother saw her walking outside without shoes. She asks Kitty to stay with her, but Kitty says she must go so she can meet a boy. Esme doesn’t understand, so Kitty explains that they both must find husbands and move away from home. The former proclaims she is never getting married.

The narrative cuts to Iris. She awakens late and dresses quickly, as she has to interview a potential weekend employee for the shop. A man named Peter Lasdun calls from Cauldstone, a psychiatric hospital. Mr. Lasdun claims he is calling about Euphemia Lennox, Iris’s great-aunt. Iris is confused because her grandmother, Kathleen Lockhart (Kitty), doesn’t have a sister. Kathleen has Alzheimer’s disease and resides in a nursing home; Iris has power of attorney for her grandmother since her mother lives in Australia and her father is dead. Mr. Lasdun explains that Euphemia is Kathleen’s sister, and that she’s been a patient of Cauldstone for many years. Iris goes to the hospital to speak with Mr. Lasdun and a social worker in person. On her way, she calls Alex and tells him about Euphemia. Alex is just as perplexed as Iris. At the hospital, Mr. Lasdun says Cauldstone is closing, and that he must relocate all their patients. Since Iris is Euphemia’s closest relative, they hope she can take the older woman home with her. Iris is stunned to learn Euphemia has been at Cauldstone for 60 years. Doctors diagnosed her with many conditions, including bipolar disorder, but have deemed her safe for release. Iris says she can’t take Euphemia home since she doesn’t know her. But before she leaves, she asks to meet Euphemia.

Content Warning: The following summary contains child death.

Esme remembers what she calls “the hard thing” (41). The sound of playing cards reminds her of the ceiling fan in the nursery in India. Esme hovers over Hugo’s crib, showing him a paper bird, but he doesn’t feel well and turns away from her. Jamila says he has a slight fever likely due to teething, and urges Esme to go outside to play. Instead, she rushes through the house and looks through her parents’ belongings, giddy with freedom. As she climbs onto their bed, Esme notices a curious pain in her chest. She examines herself but doesn’t see anything unusual; however, she presses her chest and feels the pain again. Esme wanders through the house and becomes aware of its eerie silence. She runs back to the nursery and finds Jamila barely able to speak and burning with a fever. She runs to the kitchen for help, but it is as though everyone vanished in the middle of meal preparation. Esme runs outside and calls out to whom she thinks is the gardener’s son, but he doesn’t answer. She returns to the nursery and finds Hugo dead. She holds his body throughout the night, and when she awakens the next morning, she realizes Jamila is also dead. When her parents return several days later, they find Esme locked in the library, holding Hugo’s body. Her father questions her, but she is in shock and has lost all sense of time. Her mother stares out the window as they pry Hugo’s body from Esme’s arms.

The novel cuts to Iris. A social worker leads Iris into the depths of Cauldstone. The place is eerily quiet and has an unpleasant smell. They enter a room where several women linger—one begs for cigarettes, and one shuffles around repeating the same phrase. A nurse summons Euphemia, and Iris meets her great-aunt for the first time. Iris introduces herself, but Euphemia seems confused. The former explains that she is Euphemia’s sister’s granddaughter. Euphemia grabs Iris’s wrist, whispers that she’s not dangerous, and implores her not to look at the nurses for help because they will put her back in solitary confinement. She tells Iris that her name is Esme, and that she’s never told the hospital staff her real name. Esme seems surprised that Kitty had a son, and Iris tells her that he died when she was young. Iris tells Esme that Kitty has Alzheimer’s disease and confirms that Cauldstone is closing. Esme asks if Iris will take her away, but Iris says she can’t. She silently leaves, and Iris is stunned to realize Esme looks like her father.

Later, Iris meets Alex and Fran for lunch and explains Esme’s situation. Alex questions if Esme’s situation is a scam or a mistake. Iris stares at Fran and thinks about how much she dislikes her sister-in-law; Fran’s never worn the vintage dress Iris bought her as a wedding gift. Iris confirms that she saw the papers legitimizing Esme’s relation to the family, but Fran echoes her husband’s doubts. There is a palpable coolness between Alex and Fran, and the former begs Iris to have no further dealings with Esme or Cauldstone.

Iris visits her grandmother, Kitty, at her nursing home in Old Town. Kitty has little short-term memory and is agitated. Iris enjoyed visiting her grandmother as a child, but now, these visits are unpleasant. She introduces herself to Kitty, but Kitty quickly forgets Iris and becomes combative when Iris tries to help her button her sweater. After arguing over whether or not Kitty has eaten dinner, Iris asks Kitty about her sister Esme. Kitty exclaims that Esme wouldn’t let go of the baby. Iris questions this, but Kitty only repeats that Esme wouldn’t let go and they had to sedate her. She tries to pry more details from Kitty, but she only adds that she was in another room at the time (of Esme’s sedation).

Iris visits Cauldstone’s confidential archives with Mr. Lasdun’s permission to research Esme’s history. Since she doesn’t know Esme’s admittance date, it takes a while to find her records. Iris eventually learns that Esme was admitted to Cauldstone at 16 for refusing to cut her hair and dancing around in her mother’s clothing. She returns to her shop and reads an email from her mother in Brisbane, stating that she knows nothing about Esme. Iris plods through shop bookkeeping, but fixates on the image of a young girl twirling around in a beautiful gown and humming a song, unaware that people are watching.

Mr. Lasdun leaves the hospital, anxious to get home and enjoy dinner with his family. Suddenly, Iris runs toward him, asking what will happen to Esme when the hospital closes. He explains that they will attempt to place her somewhere residential, but she will likely wind up in a nursing home facility. There is a shortage of available placements, and Esme is currently on a waiting list. Mr. Lasdun explains that she may be discharged soon and will have to stay in a hostel. Iris says she will house Esme. Later, after Luke stays the night at her home for the first time, Iris lies in bed reading to him about the history of women incarcerated in psychiatric hospitals; he’s uninterested and continues touching her. She abruptly asks him how old he was when he first had sex. He says it happened when he was 17 at a New Year’s party. Iris returns to the subject of Cauldstone, unable to stop thinking about what it must have been like to be trapped there. Luke continues to touch her, and asks about her first sexual experience. She refuses to give him details, but privately recalls that it was her stepbrother, Alex.