Today Will Be Different is a humorous realistic fiction novel written by American author Maria Semple and published by Little, Brown and Company in 2016. The novel takes place over one day and follows Eleanor Flood, an animator and aspiring graphic novelist in Seattle, whose plan to make better decisions and improve her personal life goes awry when her husband disappears, her son falls ill, and a lunch meeting with an old coworker forces her to come to terms with her past, including the dissolution of her relationship with her beloved sister. The novel explores the themes of The Tension Between the Self and Family, The Gap Between Who One Is and Who One Wishes to Be, and The Function of Family in Healing and Growth. Semple previously wrote the 2012 novel Where’d You Go, Bernadette, which shares many of the same themes and narrative elements and was adapted into a film of the same name starring Cate Blanchett in 2019.

This guide refers to the 2016 NOOK e-book edition.

Content Warning: The novel contains references to domestic abuse, alcohol and drug addiction, child neglect, body shaming, eating disorders, racism perpetuated by the protagonist, and anti-gay bias; one use of an ableist slur; and an antisemitic remark that is depicted negatively. Some of this content is mentioned and discussed in the study guide.

Plot Summary

Eleanor Flood wakes up resolving to be kinder and more attentive to others, to stop being late, and to stop skipping important tasks. She describes her tendency to cause chaos and her attempts to get used to life in Seattle after moving there with her husband, Joe Wallace, who is a hand surgeon. She then takes her son, Timby, to school and goes to meet her mentor, adjunct professor Alonzo Wrenn, at a restaurant. While there, she gets a call from Timby’s school and learns that he has a stomachache. She picks up Timby from school, steals a lanyard from a mother, and takes Timby to the doctor, where she learns that he is being bullied. Afterward, Eleanor goes to Joe’s office to ask him for advice but learns that he told the receptionist and office manager that he was going on vacation. Later that day, Eleanor meets Spencer Martell, a former colleague, for lunch. Spencer briefly worked in the animation department with Eleanor on the TV show Looper Wash before he was fired. He then became a prolific Seattle artist, even winning a Minerva Prize, which Eleanor herself was nominated for. He reveals that she has been nominated for her semiautobiographical graphic novel The Flood Girls.

The novel switches to the perspective of Daniel Clowes, who describes meeting Eleanor. She bought his artwork, and he immediately liked her own artwork as well. He saw some art that she had done about her childhood and encouraged her to turn it into a graphic novel, which he nominated for the Minerva Prize.

Back at the apartment, Eleanor is hit with reminders of her old life with her sister, Ivy. Not long after, Eleanor gets a call from her publisher, who reveals that they do not intend to publish her graphic novel anymore. Eleanor hangs up and throws her phone away. She returns to Timby and sees him holding the lanyard she stole. She hits her head and faints.

The novel then flashes back to when Eleanor’s sister, Ivy, met her husband, New Orleans cotton and sugar heir Barnaby “Bucky” Fanning. They meet in New York City, start a relationship, and move together to New Orleans. Eleanor goes with Joe to their engagement party, where her attempt to help out goes awry, offending Bucky. They later attend Ivy and Bucky’s wedding, where Eleanor gifts Ivy The Flood Girls. A year later, they attend the christening of Ivy and Bucky’s son, John-Tyler. There, Eleanor makes fun of the president John Tyler, her ancestor and John-Tyler’s namesake, offending Bucky more. Later, Ivy confronts Eleanor for offending her husband. After a heated argument, Eleanor cuts her out of her life. Later, Ivy calls, saying that she started medication that has helped regulate her emotions. However, at their father’s funeral in Aspen, she has an emotional breakdown and steals Joe’s Jeep. Soon after, Eleanor becomes pregnant with Timby, and Ivy calls, saying that she is leaving Bucky and taking John-Tyler with her. They arrange to meet in Seattle, but Bucky comes with them and explains that Ivy needs to distance herself from Eleanor, giving back The Flood Girls. Eleanor has an outburst and gets arrested before cutting Ivy out of her life completely. She later learns that Ivy and Bucky have had another child named Delphine, whose name is on the lanyard Eleanor stole.

The novel returns to the present-day timeline. After regaining consciousness, Eleanor tells everyone that she is okay and goes to the school to return the lanyard she stole. She discovers that Joe has gone to a church/community center and drives there with Timby to look for him. On the way, she has an emotional breakdown and blames herself for driving Joe away. Timby comforts her. They don’t find Joe at the church/community center, but people there tell them that Joe and his singing group went to the Key Arena. Timby and Eleanor spot Joe there.

Joe tells Eleanor that he decided to follow Jesus after a fight over the physical injuries of a Seattle Seahawks player (who is Joe’s patient), resulting in Joe being physically removed from the press room and left alone with the Seahawks’ chaplain, Simon. He also intends to sing with his group for the Pope on Saturday and expresses an openness to the mystery of the universe after gaining faith and a desire to attend divinity school. This angers Eleanor, who demands that he not sing with his group or else he is choosing to leave their marriage. This does not work, and he goes to sing with the group. During the performance, she realizes that his personal growth does not depend on her. Enraged, she confronts Joe after the concert, causing a guard dog to bite her. She wakes up in the hospital, and she and Joe agree to work through this change in their lives, with her becoming open to them moving to Scotland for his divinity studies. Later, Eleanor completes her work on The Flood Girls and decides that she will never give up on reconciling with Ivy. During their nightly teeth-brushing routine, Eleanor finally tells Timby about Ivy, who gives her hope that a reconciliation is possible. The next day, Eleanor promises to do better, improving her habits and spending more time with those she loves.