Spells for Forgetting

Emery Blackwood sneaks out of bed, leaving her lover, Dutch Boden, behind. She makes her way out and thinks about the ferries that bring tourists to their little island. On her walk, she sees that the trees have turned from green to autumn-colored overnight. Emery enters her tearoom, where tourists come for mystical brews. She encounters her meddling aunt Nixie, who talks to her about Dutch. He and Emery have been arguing about Emery’s resistance to committing to a life with him. After Nixie leaves, Emery starts preparing a bath of tea from her family’s sacred book, The Herbarium. Suddenly, a loud noise erupts, and Emery drops a glass jar. She looks up to see that her window has cracked and that the trees are releasing all their leaves. A starling has died outside the window. In the next moment, the ferry’s horn announces its arrival.

Leoda Morgan, the local midwife, helps Emery clean up the mess and tends to the wound she got from the broken glass. A tourist enters the shop with her daughter, and Emery reflects on the island’s symbiotic relationship with tourism. Tourists come to Saoirse Island hoping to experience its intrinsic magic. The woman tells Emery that she used to come every year for tea leaf readings, which Emery’s mother performed, but they stopped coming after a cataclysmic fire in which a girl named Lily Morgan died. She probes Emery for information, but Emery is reticent; she doesn’t share her past with outsiders.

August arrives on the island and takes stock of his surroundings. He’s careful to avoid anyone who might recognize him. On his way to his old house, he encounters the town marshal, Jakob Blackwood, who drives him the rest of the way. Jakob is distant and hostile, and August remembers when he was part of their family. Yet after the fire in which Lily died, everyone turned their backs on him and his mother. Jakob tells August to leave as soon as his mother’s ashes are buried and leaves. August takes in his ramshackle abandoned home, which is right beside Emery’s.

Emery goes to see her father, Noah, at his pub, bringing him medicine that Leoda made for him. On her way, she stops at the market and greets the shop owner by name. Some girls she went to school with watch her curiously. At the pub, she gives her father his medicine and assesses his face, scarred from the fire. She sees a picture of her mother and reminisces about her before she died. Her uncle Jake stops by the pub and tells Noah that August has returned to the island.

The narrative jumps back in time to 11 hours after the fire. Jake interrogates Emery about the events of the fire. He asks about Lily’s plans for the previous night and seems particularly interested in August. Emery becomes defensive and doesn’t understand Jake’s suspicion.

Back in the present, Emery processes August’s return and meets Dutch outside the tearoom. They prepare to go to the local council meeting. Once there, Emery is greeted with shock and suspicion. Jake explains August’s purpose in his brief return and encourages everyone to give him space. Emery remembers the night of the fire and Lily’s shocking murder; everyone blames August for her death even though he was never convicted.

Dutch drives toward August’s family’s orchard. He was asked to run it by the town council after the family left. He thinks about his difficult relationship with Emery and his lost friendships with her, August, and Lily. After he arrives, Leoda appears and tries to incite him against August. Dutch encourages her to let things blow over.

August goes to see his old neighbor, Zachariah, who manages the local cemetery. Zachariah already knows that he’s there about his mother and is dismissive. On returning home, August meets his family’s lawyer, Bernard. He’s come to help August manage the sale of his house but appears terrified of him. He leaves as quickly as possible. Before August goes inside, he sees Emery across the street. They stare at each other in shock before she gets into her truck and drives away.

Emery reels from seeing August back after so long. Later, she goes to her grandmother’s house and falls asleep in her childhood bed. In the morning, her grandmother makes her breakfast and asks about August. Emery refuses to see him. She considers her family’s book of spells, which is kept at her grandmother's house, and wonders if something in it might cure her heartache.

Sixteen months before the fire, Emery, Lily, and Dutch hang out at the beach together. August joins them in a bad mood because he’s been fighting with his grandfather; Emery notices bruises on his skin. Lily implores them to sneak out at night while Emery silently tries to comfort August. Lily and Dutch leave, and August asks Emery to leave the island with him. Emery is surprised but ultimately agrees.

In the present, Emery returns to the tearoom and finds a post office note. She goes to collect her package and also receives one for Leoda, which she delivers to the general store. She helps Leoda unpack a shipment of herbs and reflects on the way she and Lily used to sneak in to steal ingredients for spells. Emery considers her relationship with Leoda and the tension between them since Lily’s death. When Lily was found, her lungs were filled with seawater even though her body was left in the woods.