A detailed, spoiler-filled summary of the Lovecraft Country novel

HBO’s new series, Lovecraft Country, is a based on a 2016 novel by Matthew Ruff. What happens in the book and what hints does it offer about the show?

Lovecraft Country is the exciting new show from HBO and executive producer Jordan Peele. And luckily for those who can’t wait for the show or are looking for more once it starts, the source material is already available.

The new show is based on a 2016 novel by Matthew Ruff, set in the Jim Crow era and following the intertwining stories of an extended Black family in and around Chicago as they cross paths with a mysterious cult of magical practitioners. The novel deals with serious themes of racism, power and violence, both actual and supernatural. But it’s also intentionally pulpy, a nod to science fiction and comic books works of that era, in both tone and specific references, including the works of H.P. Lovecraft. The tying together of theme and tone is also waving a red flag at the racist history of Lovecraft himself.

The book is organized into eight chapters with an epilogue. Each chapter essentially works as a standalone short story with different featured characters. However, there is a thread connecting all of them and the first and last chapters close the loop, wrapping it together into a single coherent narrative.

In an interview with Romona Williams, Ruff talked about how the original conceit for the novel was a television pitch.

"The idea was  to do a story like The X-Files or Kolchak the Night Stalker, where you would have a core group of characters having weekly paranormal adventures. But I wanted to do something different with it so instead of white FBI agents, I came up with the idea for it to be about this Black family that owned a travel agency in the 1950s and published a guide for black travelers in the Jim Crow era U.S.…When I couldn’t get it to go as a TVshow, I kept thinking about it for the next 3-4 years and finally figured out a way to make it work as a novel. So that’s the roundabout way I came to it."

I found it interesting that he specifically mentioned The X-Files since the book does have plenty of symmetry with the show’s famous structure — “Monster of the Week” episodes mixed in with those that specifically drive the larger story arc. It’s clear from the episode synopses they’ve released that HBO’s version won’t be a one-to-one match between episodes and chapters. Still, it will be interesting to see how much the HBO series hews to that structure or drifts away from that serial feel, a trope of classic episodic television, or focuses on continuity in the main story, something that’s become more common in today’s modern prestige productions.

Beware, Lovecraft Country spoilers ahead!

Chapter 1: Lovecraft Country 

A young Black man named Atticus Turner travels home to Chicago looking for his father, Montrose, after receiving a strange letter from him. In Chicago, he visits his Uncle George who, along with his father, owns and operates a travel agency and publishes a guide that caters to Black travelers and helps them avoid the prevalent violence and discrimination of this Jim Crow Era. Finding that his father is not in Chicago, Atticus and his Uncle George set off for the village of Ardmore, Massachusetts, which was mentioned in Montrose’s letter. Not long after leaving the discover that Letitia, a childhood friend of Atticus’, has stowed away and joined them for the journey.

Along the journey, they escape from a violent, racist sheriff and his deputies and avoid a shadowy monster that seems to live in the forest surrounding Ardmore. They arrive at a small and archaic village surrounding a massive manor house, the home of a man named Samuel Braithwhite. They discover that Samuel leads an order of evil, racist, modern wizards founded by an ancestor named Titus Braithwhite, called The Order of the Ancient Dawn. Montrose was brought to Ardmore as bait to lure Atticus who, through his deceased mother’s side of the family, is also a descendant of Titus Braithwhite and a closer relation than Samuel or his son Caleb.

The order needs Atticus, specifically his blood, for an ancient magic ritual but it is all undermined by Caleb. He teaches Atticus an incantation which disrupts the ritual, killing Samuel and several other members of the order and letting Caleb assume control. In gratitude for their help, Caleb allows Atticus, Uncle George, Montrose and Letitia to leave safely.

Chapter 2: The Dreams of the Which House 

Letitia and her sister Ruby are surprised to receive a large sum of money from a strange man who claims it was a debt he owed their late father, a notorious and unsuccessful gambler. Letitia talks Ruby into using the money to buy a house in Chicago, specifically one in a predominantly white neighborhood. The massive mansion has remained unsold because of legends and rumors that it is haunted.

The two sisters are able to find a white realtor who will help them subvert the neighborhood’s redlining restrictions and they are able to buy the house. Upon moving in they are repeatedly harassed by both racist, white neighbors and the spirits that seem to inhabit the house. Ruby is eventually overwhelmed and leaves, but Letitia stubbornly stays outwitting the neighbors and outlasting the ghosts, reaching a détente with both. Eventually, Atticus, visiting the house, finds a picture of the original owner, Hiram Winthrop, with Samuel Braithwhite. He suspects that Caleb was behind Letitia and Ruby’s sudden windfall and that the order may not be done with them yet.

Chapter 3: Abdullah’s Book 

Uncle George and Montrose are half-brothers and for years they have carefully protected “The Book of Days”, a ledger prepared by their great-grandmother, Adah. She was born into slavery and the book is her attempt to reconcile what she is owed by the universe, in both abstract and concrete ways. It is a record of the money she is owed for her slave labor, adjusted for inflation and interest.

George and Montrose find that the book is missing from the safe deposit box they keep it in and that Caleb has taken it. To get it back, they need to steal a magical book called The Book of Names, which used to be owned by Hiram Winthrop, from its current hiding place in the Natural History Museum. With the help of friends and an elaborate scheme, they are able to secure The Book of Names. An attempt to trick Caleb with a fake book is foiled and they end up handing over the real thing. As promised, Caleb return’s their family’s book as well as around $300,000 — the debt the ledger estimates Adah is owed.

Chapter 4: Hippolyta Disturbs the Universe 

Hippolyta, the wife of Uncle George, is traveling through Wisconsin doing research for their travel guide and stops to explore an astronomical observatory that used to be owned by Hiram Winthrop. She has always dreamed of being an astronomer, even as a child. Using a code that she found in Winthrop’s house at house-warming party through by Letitia, she accidentally opens a portal inside the observatory that leads to another planet.

Hippolyta goes through the portal and begins to explore the other planet, finding a woman named Ida living inside a small, gated cottage. Ida was a former maid of Hiram Winthrop’s and he brought her and several other employees here years ago after his son eloped with another maid named Pearl. Winthrop meant to scare the employees into telling him where Pearl and his son were but before he could return for them, he was killed by Samuel Braithwhite, and Ida, the last survivor, has been trapped on this other planet for years.

Ida doesn’t believe that Winthrop’s power was ended by his death and she decides to stay on the planet, giving Hippolyta a box containing a monster inside for her journey back. Ida hopes the monster will kill Hippolyta once she is back on earth so Ida’s location will continue to be a secret. Instead, the monster kills several white men who are hassling Hippolyta as she tried to leave the observatory. When Hippolyta arrives back in Chicago, she realizes a comic book that her son Horace drew for her is not in the car anymore.

Chapter 5: Jekyll in Hyde Park 

Ruby is wooed by a stranger who turns out to be Caleb Braithwhite. He offers her a magic potion that transforms her into a white woman, a beautiful redhead. The potion’s effects don’t last long but Ruby is able to experience Chicago without the heavy weight of racial discrimination.

Braithwhite offers her a steady supply of the potion if she will work for him, helping him to unite all the regional lodges of The Order of the Ancient Dawn. She begins working for him and regularly using the potion. In the course of her work, she meets Captain Lancaster a brutish Chicago police officer who also happens to be head of the Chicago lodge of the order and one of Caleb’s chief rivals.

Ruby eventually discovers the body of a red-headed woman in Braithwhite’s basement. Her blood is being used to make the potion which transforms her. Caleb tells her that Delilah would have died anyway and that by using her blood in this way she is continuing to serve a noble purpose. Ruby is left with the decision of whether or not to continue working for Caleb and using the potion.

Chapter 6: The Narrow House 

At the request of Caleb, Atticus and Montrose seek out Henry Winthrop, the son of Hiram, who ran off with the Black maid, Pearl. Caleb believes that Henry has possession of several Hiram’s old notebooks and journals that he needs for his nefarious magical plans. Henry and Pearl changed their names when they ran off but Atticus and Montrose eventually find clues that lead them to believe a man named “Henry Narrow” who moved to Aken, Illinois, is actually Henry.

When they arrive at the house, they learn that the Narrow family is no more. They were killed by an angry, racist mob, incensed at the idea of an interracial family living near them. Montrose enters the house and finds the ghosts of the Narrow family, reliving their horror and the death of his own father at the hand of a racist mob. The ghost of Henry Narrow (Winthrop) gives Montrose a book with information about how they can defeat Caleb.

Chapter 7: Horace and the Devil Doll 

Horace, the middle-school-aged son of George and Hippolyta, is visited by Captain Lancaster who found a copy of the comic book he drew for his mother while investigating the monstrous deaths outside the observatory that used to belong to Hiram Winthrop. Lancaster is suspicious of Caleb and thinks Hippolyta’s visit to the observatory is part of a plot against him. Lancaster demands that Horace spy on his mother and when Horace refuses, Lancaster places a curse on him that causes a small pygmy doll to follow, terrorize and attack him. In addition, the curse prevents Horace from speaking to anyone about what is happening.

Horace plays Scrabble with Ruby and is able to communicate the situation using tiles. Ruby tells Caleb, who kills the doll and counteracts the curses. This represents a break in the tentative alliance between Caleb and Lancaster and Caleb decides he must do away with his rival.

Chapter 8: The Mark of Cain 

All of the main characters begin to put together the pieces of their various stories and realize how Caleb has been behind them all, pulling the strings. He needs their help in his plot against Lancaster but using the book they received from Henry Winthrop and help from Hiram’s ghost they plan to double-cross Caleb.

First, the group helps Caleb in his plan, tricking Lancaster into a meeting where he is eaten by a monster. At that moment, Atticus is able to use the magic he’s learned as well as the power of his bloodline (as a descendant of Titus Braithwhite) and alter a mark of protection that Caleb had on his body. The mark gave Caleb immunity from physical harm but Atticus alters it so that he can no longer perform magic, rendering him powerless.

Epilogue 

Several of the characters close out the unfinished arcs of their chapters. We see Ruby continuing to use the store of transformation potion given to her by Caleb, applying for a job as a white woman. Hippolyta seeks the code so that she can reopen the portal in the observatory and convince Ida to return home. The travel agency resumes operation and the Turner family plans for adventures of a more mundane sort.

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