Day by Michael Cunningham, first published in 2023, is a contemporary fiction novel. It covers one day—April 5—over the course of three years in 2019, 2020, and 2021, examining the personal impact of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The novel is considered a work of psychological fiction, as it explores the thoughts of several characters who struggle with past regrets, fears for the future, and personal relationships in the form of family, friendship, and love.

Cunningham is best known for his 1998 novel The Hours, which won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. He is the author of eight novels as well as several short stories, non-fiction works, and two screenplays. His novels are largely considered literary fiction with an emphasis on the psychology of characters living ordinary lives, touching on themes related to family, relationships, mental health, and sexuality.

This guide uses the 2024 Random House trade paperback edition of the novel.

Content Warning: The novel and this guide discuss substance use disorder and suicidal ideation.

Plot Summary

The novel covers the course of three days: the date of April 5 in the years 2019, 2020, and 2021. The first section of the text occurs during the morning in 2019, as Isabel Byre looks out her window at the East River and a street in Brooklyn. She sees the first signs of spring, as the shop across the street opens for the day and a man stumbles home. Turning away from the window, she acknowledges that she needs to do her best to begin her day.

Her brother, Robbie, lives upstairs in their attic apartment, but Isabel and her husband, Dan, recently asked him to move out. Robbie is an English teacher, but as he struggles to read his class’s essays and fails in his search for a new apartment, he realizes that it may be time to begin a new career.

Robbie finds Isabel on the stairs. She attempts to express her guilt over having Robbie move out, but Robbie assures her that he will be fine. They discuss Wolfe, an online persona that they invented with thousands of followers on social media. They have created a life for Wolfe, a pediatrician with a dog and a roommate, and decide that he should consider purchasing a home in the country. As Robbie offers to get Isabel’s children, Nathan and Violet, ready for school, Isabel remains on the stairs.

Robbie goes with Violet and Nathan down to the kitchen, where Dan cooks breakfast for the children. Dan, who is 40 years old, is a former musician who briefly had a career opening for other bands and producing one album. Now, he writes songs to rejoin the industry and asks Robbie to listen to his new music.

Isabel leaves for work, but has a breakdown on the train, crying and becoming embarrassed when people try to comfort her. As she stands in the station, she wonders what it would be like to get on a train and leave—abandoning her life and her responsibilities without repercussion. When she makes it to work, her boss, Derrick, dismisses her latest set of photographs for a magazine spread. She realizes that her job is only secure for so long, as magazine print is failing, but she attempts to appease Derrick and hold on for as long as she can.

At home, Robbie listens to Dan’s new song, doing his best to pretend to be interested. He struggles to pay attention while watching Odin, the son of Chess and Garth—Dan’s brother. Garth arrives, inviting Robbie and Violet to go to the park.

At work, Chess teaches her college literature students. Her phone goes off constantly, as Garth attempts to apologize for being late that morning. As she debates literature with her students, she realizes that she would rather be there than attempting to again rectify things with Garth.

Alone in his apartment, Robbie sorts through his old things as he begins to pack to move out. He tries to find memorabilia from his old relationships, including a scarf from a past boyfriend and a photo from his first relationship. He realizes, as he attempts to grade his students’ papers but gets distracted by packing, that he needs to find a new career. He decides to use moving out of Dan and Isabel’s home as an opportunity to take a new direction in life.

One year later, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the world. Robbie is in Iceland; he was supposed to go only briefly but has been stuck for several months. As he writes letters to Isabel that he can’t send, he tells her how beautiful nature is in his cabin and how desperately he wants to get into medical school to start his life over. However, he also slowly begins to believe that Wolfe is real, commenting on the things that they do together, and in his last letter admits that he has not found the happiness he was looking for.

Chess teaches her courses but does so virtually, never leaving her home and instead making her life entirely about raising Odin. When Garth asks to see Odin through the window, she agrees, but then immediately regrets her decision, doubling down on the fact that she wants to raise Odin alone.

Dan continues to write his music—having found some traction online and gained a couple hundred thousand followers. However, once he achieves minimal success, he realizes that it is not as fulfilling as he’d hoped. Instead, he continues to write.

Violet becomes desperately afraid of any windows in the house being left open, convinced that COVID-19 can enter their house that way. Nathan spends all his time in his room, acting rude to his parents and Violet when they try to interact with him and refusing to do his schoolwork. However, he also texts his two friends, inviting them over to sneak into the house that night.

Forced to stay in her home, Isabel slips further into herself, recognizing that she should engage with Dan and her children but refusing to do so. Instead, she spends hours at a time sitting on the stairs, looking at Wolfe’s Instagram, thinking about Robbie, and listening to music.

On the final day, it is revealed that Robbie died in Iceland of an illness, presumably COVID-19. His family meets at Isabel’s cabin, which she started renting shortly after the pandemic ended and she and Dan divorced. They prepare to scatter Robbie’s ashes the next day.

Nathan struggles with guilt that he feels over Robbie’s death. When his friends came over to visit, one of them had COVID-19, which his father and sister both caught. He considers how Violet could have died, then transfers that guilt over to Robbie getting sick in Iceland. He goes to the lake nearby Isabel’s house, where Robbie’s ashes will be scattered, and slowly enters the lack, battling the cold and the dark as he completely submerges himself.

Isabel attempts to cook dinner while repeatedly checking Wolfe’s Instagram and making posts with pictures of Iceland from Robbie’s phone. Dan joins her and offers to cook for her, and the two talk about how upset Isabel is that Robbie died without ever truly being in love. They discuss the fact that Dan and Robbie loved each other, as Dan grieves internally over his loss and the fact that no one comforts him. At the end of their conversation, Dan believes there is hope for rekindling their marriage, while Isabel thinks of how she is ready to move on to a new home, a new career, and new love.

Outside, Garth and Chess speak on the porch. Garth apologizes for confessing his love to Chess but maintains it is true. However, Chess informs him that she got a job in California and will be moving. She considers how she loves Garth, in some way, but is adamant about raising Odin on her own. Garth angrily leaves and goes for a drive.

While driving, Garth finds Nathan walking in the road. He forces Nathan into the truck and asks what he was doing. Nathan is hesitant at first, but he admits that he went into the lake to feel what Robbie felt. As Garth admonishes him for thinking about those things and the danger of it, Nathan grabs hold of part of Garth’s hair, and the two sit together in silence.

Dan goes out into the driveway and does drugs, revealing that he is experiencing substance use disorder again. He thinks of how he is going to continue to write until he finds fame, how he will rekindle his relationship with Isabel, and how he must move past the immense pain he feels from Robbie’s death.

Isabel writes one final post on Wolfe’s Instagram. She chooses a selfie that Robbie took, standing on the threshold of the cabin. She tells his followers that he is done posting and moving on to the next part of his life with Robbie.