Remain chronicles an intriguing supernatural romance between an unusual pair whose attachment can only find peace once the truth about the woman is brought to light. Remain is a novel co-written by Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan, focusing on the story of New York architect Tate Donovan as he tries to rebuild his life after the loss of his sister.
Following his recovery from severe depression, Tate travels to Cape Cod to design a summer house, only for him to meet a young woman named Wren. They form an instant connection, leading Tate to unravel disturbing truths about the girl he met.
Shyamalan and Sparks are collaborating once again for a film adaptation of Remain. Directed by Shyamalan, the film stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Bridgerton alum Phoebe Dynevor and is scheduled for release on February 5, 2027.
Every Major Spoiler for Remain, According to the Book
Tate Moves to a Victorian House After His Sister's Death
Remain introduces Tate Donovan, a 38-year-old New York architect, who arrives in the fictional Cape Cod town of Heatherington to design a summer home for his best friend, Oscar. This isn't just a random trip. Tate is still recovering from the death of his sister, Sylvia, and he has just left a psychiatric facility after four months of treatment for the severe depression he endured.
On her deathbed, Sylvia told Tate that she could see spirits still tethered to the living world, calling it a "family gift" that their mother also had. Tate didn't want to believe it at first, but his immersion in the Cape Cod summer home, Tobin Victorian, changed everything.
After settling into the isolated cabin, Mike, Sylvia's late husband, begins sending three video messages that Sylvia had recorded for Tate. In them, Sylvia urges her brother to open his heart, trust what he sees, and choose love even if it hurts. This series of messages is seemingly tied to their ability to see the dead and for Tate's own recovery.
Tate begins experiencing strange things in the house, eventually leading to an encounter with a woman named Wren, whom he meets while she is practicing yoga in the parlor. Wren and Tate hit it off the first time they met, but she suddenly vanished when the caretaker, Louise, arrived and insisted no one else was staying in the house.
Tate soon learns the truth: Wren is a ghost who died in the house almost two years earlier. She slipped and drowned in the bathtub, but there were far more disturbing details about her death that she had yet to uncover.
In the book, Wren appears to Tate in two forms. Daytime Wren is a warm, funny, and more affectionate version who is unaware she was dead, while Nighttime Wren is trapped in the bathroom, reliving her death and whispering that she was murdered.
Wren Had a Troubled Divorce From Her Husband
Tate and Wren grow closer during their time together in Cape Cod, allowing them to share intimate details about their lives. Tate opens up about Sylvia's death and his time inside the psychiatric facility, while Wren reveals more about her past and the weeks leading up to her death.
Wren says that she had a difficult marriage to her husband, Griffin, which led to their divorce. She also tells Tate that she had financial issues with her business partner, Nash, at a local toy-and-games shop. However, those stories don't always align with what the living have been saying in the present day.
Tate brings his best friend Oscar into the investigation. Oscar is the only person he can trust, given that the locals, Louise, and even Griffin have different accounts of Wren. They investigate what happened to Wren, discovering from Police Chief Ray Dugan that Wren's death was ruled accidental drowning but was initially treated as suspicious.
Tate later finds a shed that has Wren's belongings, including a plethora of documents that give clues to the truth behind her death. It includes a file showing Nash had embezzled from the business, and an obsessive letter from Dax, a counselor who stalked her and wrote that he would "follow [her] into the afterlife." Dax's wife, Tessa, approaches Tate and Oscar to verbally malign Wren, telling them that she was a manipulative homewrecker who pursued unavailable men. When confronted by the pair, Griffin, Nash, and Dax all look guilty, with each having an alibi or denying what truly happened to Wren.
The local town's Mask and Music Festival is fast approaching, and, coincidentally, it falls on the second anniversary of Wren's death. Tate notices Daytime Wren flickering and fading as Nighttime Wren's trauma takes over. This moment is important in the book because it makes Tate realize he must solve the mystery of Wren's death; otherwise, she will remain trapped in the real world, the "goodness" of Daytime Wren will vanish, and Nighttime Wren will eventually take over.
Tate Has a Vision of Wren's Murder
On festival night, the second-year anniversary of Wren's death, Tate experiences a horrible vision that makes him relive what happened to Wren. He is pulled back to the upstairs bathroom, with him witnessing the murder.
Tate sees a large masked figure grabbing Wren and smashing her head against the faucet. A smaller figure then helps the other man hold her underwater in the bathtub until she drowns. Tate also sees the smaller figure take Wren's heart-shaped locket, recognizing it as the same one Louise, the caretaker, was wearing.
After the vision ends, Louise's husband, Reece (aka the groundskeeper), appears in the hallway to attack Tate, knocking him unconscious. This vision proves that Wren's death was not an accident; instead, it was a targeted and calculated scheme that ended her life.
Reece & Louise Try To Silence the Investigators
Following the attack and with Tate unconscious, Reece douses the house with accelerant and sets it on fire to destroy evidence and to try to kill Tate because he learned the truth.
Thankfully, Oscar arrives looking for his friend, and Wren's spirit appears at a window to warn him. However, Louise ran Oscar down with Reece's truck. Wren woke Tate and told him to get out and save Oscar, helping him escape the burning house.
After containing Oscar, Reece targets Tate and attacks him with a crowbar. However, an explosion from the house causes a large piece of debris to fall, killing Reece instantly. An unstable Louise grabs the crowbar to kill Tate, but the police arrive in time to stop her and make the arrest.
As it turns out, during Tate's vision, Oscar was out digging further into the investigation, and he finally learned the truth about the motivation behind Wren's murder.
Reece Wanted Wren's Money All Along
Oscar learns Reece and Louise's motive in killing Wren from the estate trustee, Aldrich. Wren's grandmother, Joyce, left a poorly drafted trust. If Wren died before the assets were distributed, a large share of the valuable property would pass to her only other blood relative.
However, Reece is Wren's only surviving blood relative, and he stood to inherit a significant portion of the valuable property. This condition explains why Reece and Louise worked together to kill Wren.
Reece and Louise staged a bathroom accident so Reece could receive the inheritance money he believed he deserved. Griffin, Nash, and Dax were all innocent, but that didn't change the fact that they were all terrible people. Louise pleads guilty to the attempted murder of Tate and Oscar, and this plea closes a harrowing chapter from Wren's death as well.
Among the ruins of the house, Tate has an emotional, final goodbye to Wren. She thanks him for solving the mystery behind her death, noting that she is finally whole and at peace. They profess their love for each other, but they can't be together (a premise similar to Paramount+'s School Spirits storyline). Wren tells Tate that Sylvia still watches over him and asks him to embrace the messages she sent so he can live a full life.
Remain's epilogue jumps eight months ahead, showing Tate back in New York and still friends with Sylvia's husband, Mike. Tate has a new relationship with a woman named Rachel, though he is not in love with her yet.
The book's closing moments show Tate seeing the spirit of a young boy who seems lost. Tate decides to help him, signaling that he has finally accepted the family gift of seeing ghosts.
Nicholas Sparks and M. Night Shyamalan's Remain ends with a promise that Tate will remain in the world and use the lessons he learned from Sylvia and Wren to make it a better place for both the living and the dead.
