Pat Conroy’s 1995 novel Beach Music is a work of historical fiction. Set primarily in South Carolina, the novel follows a community fractured by memories of the Holocaust and the social upheaval of the 1960s and 1970s. Beach Music explores the nature of generational trauma and the way our pasts shape our futures. The power of forgiveness and the differences between duty and loyalty are also prominent themes. The setting and culture of the American South play a powerful role in the novel, as in Conroy’s other works, inspired by the author’s own connections to Southern culture.

This guide refers to the 2009 Dial Press paperback edition of the novel.

Content Warning: This guide describes and discusses the source text’s treatment of death by suicide, sexual violence, domestic abuse, alcohol use disorder, mental illness, and genocide.

Plot Summary

Cookbook author and travel writer Jack McCall lives in Rome, Italy, with his eight-year-old daughter, Leah. It is 1985. Leah and Jack have been living in Rome for five years, ever since Jack’s wife Shyla died by suicide. Jack has had no contact with his family since shortly after Shyla’s death, in part because Shyla’s parents attempted to take custody of Leah. Although Jack is happy with his life in Italy, he longs for home and for the community of friends and family that he left behind. Jack’s past comes to call when his sister-in-law shows up in Rome, wanting to speak to him about Shyla.

Also living in Rome is Jack’s childhood friend, Jordan Elliot. Jordan, a Catholic priest, is in hiding, having faked his death many years ago after accidentally killing two people in an explosion. Jack and Jordan communicate only rarely to maintain Jordan’s cover. One day, Jack visits Jordan in a confessional booth and sees a photographer taking pictures of Jordan afterward.

Jack’s other childhood friend, Mike Hess, is a film producer who wants to make a TV series about their hometown. Mike recruits Jack and their friend Ledare Ansley to write the series. Jack resists at first, hesitant to write about Shyla’s death and his painful past. Mike also questions Jack about Jordan, suspecting that their friend is still alive. Ever protective of and loyal to Jordan, Jack denies knowing anything. It will later be revealed that Mike and Capers Middleton (another childhood friend) hired the photographer who found Jordan; the old friends are hunting for Jordan because they want Jordan’s full story to be included in the TV show.

Jack’s isolation from his family and his past is further challenged when he receives a message from his brother: His mother has leukemia. At the end of Part 1, Jack decides to fly home to South Carolina to see his mother.

Jack spends all of Part 2 in South Carolina, becoming reacquainted with his family and helping care for his mother, Lucy. Jack and his four brothers are united in their worry for their mother, even though they have many disagreements. Jack’s youngest brother, John Hardin, has schizophrenia and has the most difficult time processing Lucy’s approaching death. Jack has several tense encounters with his father, who has a destructive alcohol addiction.

Being back in South Carolina is especially difficult for Jack because it reminds him of Shyla and because it puts him so near to Shyla’s parents, George and Ruth Fox. Jack was deeply wounded by the ugly custody battle that George and Ruth initiated after Shyla died. George and Ruth Fox are originally from Poland and are Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. Their trauma shaped their parenting styles; Jack blames them for the fearful, guilt-ridden childhood Shyla had in their home. Jack will eventually reconcile with George and Ruth when he hears their full stories, but for now he can barely manage to nod at Ruth when he sees her.

In Part 3, Lucy visits Jack and Leah in Rome. Her leukemia is in remission, although it will return. Her visit allows for a powerful expression of love from both Jack and Lucy. The plan is for Leah and Jack to fly home with Lucy to introduce Leah to her South Carolina family, but their plan is disrupted by a terrorist attack at the Rome airport. Jack is shot and spends several days in a coma before recovering.

Jordan rushes to the hospital when Jack is injured, thus blowing his cover. Shortly thereafter, Jordan’s father comes to Rome to speak to his son. General Elliot has believed his son dead until this point. This was intentional; Jordan has a strained relationship with his abusive martinet father. General Elliot believes his son should go to prison for his crimes, and secretly attempts to lead law enforcement to Jordan. Jordan and Jack see through the General’s ploy, and Jordan escapes arrest.

In Part 4, once Jack has recovered from his injuries, he and Leah fly to South Carolina. Jack resolves to stay until his mother dies, thus allowing Leah and Lucy to get to know each other and allowing Jack to reconcile with his friends and family. Leah and Lucy develop a close relationship, bonding over Lucy’s love of the beach and the sea turtles who make their nests near her home.

Throughout Parts 4 and 5, Jack learns a lot about his family that he never knew before. He learns about his mother’s childhood; she grew up illiterate and impoverished in the mountains of North Carolina. Lucy was abused by her father and by the head of the orphanage where she lived. Out of shame, Lucy had invented a different past for herself when she met Jack’s father. Jack also hears about Ruth’s and George’s experiences during the Holocaust. The act of sharing their stories is a gesture of peace from the Foxes, and Jack is finally able to forgive them for their actions.

Part 6 reveals Jordan Elliot’s full story and the series of events in the 1960s and 1970s that split their friend group apart and eventually led to Jordan’s crime. The events are revealed through a mock trial that Mike arranges at the Dock Street Theater in Charleston. At the “trial,” everyone takes turns telling their perspective of the events. Capers Middleton and Shyla had been very involved in the antiwar movement on campus during the Vietnam War. They drew Jordan and Jack into the protest movement even though Jack and Jordan were not originally very interested. Capers Middleton was secretly working for the government and, after a protest gone wrong, testified against his friends in court.

Jack and Shyla felt betrayed by Capers, but his testimony and their conviction proved catastrophic for Jordan’s relationship with his father. Jordan’s father forced him into a mental health hospital, where Jordan was subjected to shock therapy and heavy doses of medications. Jordan became even more angry and resentful toward his father, spending his time in the hospital planning how to get back at the general. Upon release, Jordan blew up a plane on the military base, not realizing that there were two people inside. Jordan faked his death to escape punishment, and Shyla and Jack helped him sneak out of the country.

At the end of the “trial” at the Dock Street Theater, Jack and Capers shake hands, choosing forgiveness. Jordan turns himself in, thus living up to his father’s sense of justice. The general, for his part, relocates so that he can be near Jordan for the length of his prison sentence.

After Lucy’s death, Jack and Ledare get married in Rome. Their families travel to Italy to celebrate with them, and George and Ruth Fox play an important role in the wedding ceremony. Their participation represents the forgiveness and reconciliation that the characters have earned throughout the course of the novel and makes Jack optimistic for a bright future for himself and his daughter.