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1-Page Summary of Gone Girl
Overview
The novel begins on the morning of Nick Dunne’s wedding anniversary. On that same day his wife Amy Elliott Dunne disappears from their home in North Carthage, Missouri. A few years before, Nick and Amy moved from New York to Missouri because Nick’s mother had cancer. However, Amy was not happy about it and felt like her husband didn’t consult with her enough; she also lost a job during this time period. Now, Nick owns a bar with his twin sister Margo and teaches at the local community college—all while trying to find out what happened to his wife who went missing on their fifth wedding anniversary.
Nick gets a call from his neighbor, who tells him that there are signs at his house. Nick rushes home and finds that his wife is gone. He calls the police because he thinks she’s been abducted or hurt. The case attracts a lot of media attention because Amy was the inspiration for a book series written by her parents, Rand and Marybeth Elliott, who are child psychologists. They’re called in to help with the search for Amy. There are several suspects: Hillary Handy, an obsessed fan of Amazing Amy; Desi Collings, her ex-boyfriend; Tommy O’Hara, her ex-boyfriend whom she accused of rape; and others as well.”
The story of Amy and Nick’s disappearance is told from Nick’s perspective, alternating with diary entries written by Amy. The two had a perfect relationship at first but then the stress of losing their jobs caused them to fight more often. Nick became possessive and violent toward her. She even bought a gun for protection in case he hurt her. Her last entry details how she might be killed by him someday soon.
While looking for clues in Amy’s house, the detectives find an envelope with the clues she has written for a treasure hunt. As Nick follows these clues, he becomes increasingly worried that Amy knew about his secrets and was trying to punish him by staging her own disappearance. He starts wondering if she left behind some signs of blood loss on the kitchen floor or evidence of their marital problems to frame him as being responsible for her death. He also remembers several lies he told during police questioning and how they made him look suspicious. His biggest worry is that people will find out about his affair with Andie—a student at his school whom he had been having an affair with for months before Amy disappeared.
Nick is accused of murdering his wife, Amy. Nick is surprised to hear that she was pregnant and he didn’t know about it. He had tried to have a child with her but gave up after she lost interest in having children. However, the medical records confirm that Amy was indeed pregnant when she died, which gives people even more sympathy for Nick and makes them think that he’s innocent because they think if he really killed her then why would there be evidence of pregnancy? This leads everyone to believe that someone else murdered Amy and framed Nick by planting credit card receipts from purchases at Margo’s house in Nick’s pocket so it looks like he went there on the night of the murder.
Part 2 of the book is about Amy’s plan. She has been planning it for a year and decides to use it when she discovers that her husband, Nick, is having an affair. He doesn’t seem interested in her anymore and their relationship isn’t going well so she decides to fake her own murder by framing him for the crime. To do this, she writes a diary with stories about how they met and fell in love but also describes how unhappy she feels now because he doesn’t pay enough attention to her or care enough about what’s important to her. She opens credit cards under his name without telling him, buys a car using some of those cards, fakes being pregnant by using urine from another woman who is actually pregnant (she uses Noelle), cuts herself with glass on purpose so there will be blood at the scene where she pretends to have been attacked (the house) and acts like someone broke in during which time there was struggle between them resulting in injury (herself). She then drives away secretly while wearing disguises so no one can recognize her. Her final step will be killing herself after hiding out somewhere else for several months allowing people including Nick himself think he killed her until they find her dead body which would prove his guilt beyond doubt since everyone knows that only guilty people run away after committing crimes like these ones are accused of doing before dying themselves thus making sure they’re punished severely for what ever happened even if it wasn’t them who did anything wrong especially since all evidence points towards them as being responsible anyway not just because other circumstantial evidence strongly suggests such but because people tend not believe anyone could be capable of something like this unless they were evil thus leading others into believing that whoever committed these crimes must have done so intentionally meaning maliciously otherwise why would anyone want to hurt innocent people?
