Matthew Quick’s debut novel, The Silver Linings Playbook, was published in 2008 and adapted into a major motion picture in 2012. The novel became a New York Times Best Seller, and the film received eight Academy Award nominations. The book centers on protagonist Pat Peoples, a former history teacher who receives court-mandated psychiatric institutionalization for a crime he does not remember committing. Due to his mental health treatment, Pat is an unreliable narrator. The story begins with his release from a Baltimore psychiatric institution and subsequent return to his hometown of Collingswood, New Jersey. Although Pat believes that he has only been in the hospital for months, he has been at the facility for close to four years. 

At the start of the novel, Pat’s mother Jeanie takes him back to their family home in Collingswood. Pat’s focus is to win back his estranged wife, Nikki. He does not know that Nikki divorced him years earlier. Rather than risk angering him or triggering a violent episode, his mother—as well as his family and friends—keep this knowledge from him. Despite the evasiveness of his family when he mentions Nikki, Pat is optimistic. One of his delusions is that he sees his life as a movie that God is directing. He believes that his story must have a happy ending because, in his view, the best movies all have happy endings. 

Pat meets a woman named Tiffany Webster at a dinner party held by his friends Ronnie and Veronica. Tiffany also suffers from mental illness, and the death of her husband, Tom, has traumatized her. Pat does not know that he is becoming a project for her, but Tiffany decides to try to help Pat get over Nikki. She and Pat begin running together. Tiffany tells Pat that she has been talking to Nikki every week and that if he helps her win a dance competition, she will act as a liaison between them, since a restraining order against Pat is still in effect. After a month of practice, they perform at the Dance Away Depression awareness event. Tiffany reveals that it was not actually a competition—she just thought the focus and challenge would be good for Pat, as well as giving herself the chance to spend more time with him. 

Tiffany then writes a series of letters to Pat, posing as Nikki. She reveals the divorce and says that she is remarried. Tiffany writes that she has no intention of reconciling with Pat romantically yet hopes that he can find closure, and that they can be friends. Pat writes in each reply that he refuses to give up on them and knows that he can win her back. Writing as Nikki, Tiffany eventually gives up and reminds Pat that the restraining order is still in effect, then breaks off communication. Pat replies once more, asking her to meet him on Christmas Day, at the place where he proposed to her. When Tiffany arrives instead, she reveals that she was the one writing the letters. Pat runs away from her and is mugged in a dangerous neighborhood many blocks away. He is found and cared for by Danny, a former patient Pat was friends with at the mental hospital. 

Once Pat is home, he watches a video of his wedding reception. He remembers that he beat Nikki’s lover so badly when he caught them together that he had to receive in-patient hospitalization. He acknowledges his role in their breakup and asks his brother Jake to drive him to Nikki’s house so that he can tell her that he does not blame her. Pat sees her outside having a snowball fight with her new husband and two children and decides not to talk to her because she looks so happy. 

As the novel ends, Pat meets with Tiffany, who apologizes for deceiving him and tells him that she is in love with him. Because Pat likes silver linings, Tiffany gives him a cloud identification manual that will help him recognize the shapes of the clouds he always looks at. In the book’s final lines, they tell each other that they need each other.