Written by Sally Hepworth, Darling Girls tells the story of three sisters—Jessica, Alicia, and Norah—and their childhood in the care of their abusive foster mother, Miss Fairchild. Originally published in September 2023 in Australia and then released April 2024 in North America, the novel uses complex narrative techniques such as alternating perspectives, extensive flashbacks, and an unnamed first-person narrator to examine aspects of abuse in the foster care system and critique The Long-Term Impact of Trauma. Darling Girls is Hepworth’s 10th novel and was long-listed for several awards, including the Margaret and Colin Roderick Literary Award and the BookPeople Book of the Year for Adult Fiction in 2024.

This guide refers to the Kindle edition of the novel.

Content Warning: Both the source text and this guide include graphic depictions of childhood abuse, including violence toward infants and young children, sexual exploitation and extortion, domestic violence, and drug addiction. Suicide is also briefly mentioned.

Plot Summary

The structure of Darling Girls alternates between the past and the narrative present and gradually reveals the full extent of a lifetime of tumultuous events at Wild Meadows, a seemingly idyllic farm where three sisters (Jessica, Norah, and Alicia) were raised by their foster mother, Miss Fairchild. The novel also incorporates multiple perspectives, primarily those of the three sisters, along with additional insights from an unnamed narrator who is speaking to a psychiatrist named Dr. Warren.

The prologue begins with the unnamed narrator in Dr. Warren’s office; this person is reluctant to discuss the events that occurred at a place called Wild Meadows Farm. The narrative then shifts to Jessica, a home organization expert, as she receives a call from Detective Ashleigh Patel about a discovery at Wild Meadows Farm, her former foster home. Jessica’s sister Norah is in the midst of a date with a man named Kevin when she also receives a call from Detective Patel. Their other sister, Alicia, who is now a social worker, gets a similar call as she is working with a foster child named Theo. Detective Patel asks all three sisters about their time at Wild Meadows Farm in the 1990s.

Throughout the novel, the sisters grapple with their past trauma and its effects on their adult lives. Jessica has developed anxiety and an addiction to Valium. (As the novel progresses, Jessica comes under fire at her job for habitually stealing pills from her clients’ houses.) Norah exhibits aggressive behavior and uses transactional sexual relationships to cope, while Alicia struggles with forming lasting relationships and initially believes herself incapable of being a good parent.

The sisters meet at Jessica’s house to discuss the police inquiry. While Norah is very confrontational and angry, both Alicia and Jessica are more reserved, and Jessica exhibits signs of depression and drug abuse. They agree to go to Port Agatha, where Wild Meadows is located, the next day. Flashbacks then alternate with chapters set in the narrative present. These chapters collectively reveal the sisters’ past experiences at Wild Meadows under their foster mother, Miss Fairchild.

Jessica first arrived at Wild Meadows at age four after her mother died by suicide. Initially, Miss Fairchild seemed loving, but her behavior soon became controlling and abusive. She forced Jessica to learn to swim by leaving her in the pool without support, and Jessica nearly drowned in the process. Norah came to Wild Meadows at age 10, and the farm was her seventh foster placement. She quickly learned to navigate Miss Fairchild’s moods and to obey her rules, which included strict cleaning regimens and frugal living. Alicia arrived last, at age 12, after her grandmother’s hospitalization.

The three sisters describe Miss Fairchild’s unpredictable behavior, which oscillated between sweetness and sudden anger. They also recall the frequent arrival of foster babies; although Miss Fairchild initially cared for the infants, she eventually lost interest and left their care to the girls until the babies were returned to their families or placed in permanent accommodations. The girls were also responsible for all household chores and were often left hungry due to Miss Fairchild’s strict control over food.

A significant event occurred with the arrival of Amy, a toddler whom Miss Fairchild planned to adopt. Unlike the foster babies, Miss Fairchild was attentive to Amy, which gave rise to jealousy among the sisters, though all quickly warmed to the child. However, Amy often rejected Miss Fairchild’s attention, preferring the sisters instead.

One day, the sisters returned from school to find Miss Fairchild attempting to “teach” Amy to swim by leaving her in the pool unsupervised, just as she had with Jessica years before. This incident prompted the girls to report Miss Fairchild’s abuse to their school principal, Mr. O’Day. When police investigated, they found no evidence of Amy’s existence at Wild Meadows; they only found a doll with Amy’s name stitched onto it. Due to Miss Fairchild’s manipulations, the police were led to believe that the girls imagined the existence of a fourth foster sister. Afterward, the sisters were removed from Wild Meadows and placed in a group home. They were told that Amy was a shared delusion, and they were compelled to undergo mandatory weekly counseling.

In the narrative present, the sisters learn that the bones of an infant have been found on the Wild Meadows property. Miss Fairchild publicly implies that the sisters are responsible for the infant’s death, so the sisters hire a lawyer named Anna to defend them. The sisters reunite with three women who were briefly foster babies at Wild Meadows: Rhiannon, Zara, and Bianca. They also encounter Dirk, a former neighbor who denied seeing Amy when he was questioned years ago. The narrative reveals that Dirk is a registered sex offender, a label he acquired due to a relationship he had with a 15-year-old when he was 18.

After several difficult and fraught interactions with Miss Fairchild, Jessica overdoses on benzodiazepines and is hospitalized. While she is unconscious, new information comes to light. Dirk admits to having seen Amy, but he reveals that Miss Fairchild blackmailed him into lying. The forensic anthropologist now reveals that the infant’s bones are older than expected; they are possibly over 50 years old and do not match Amy’s description.

Zara reveals she has six toes on one foot, a characteristic that the sisters remember Amy having. Zara confirms that she is the missing foster child whom the sisters knew as Amy; her adoption was brokered through unofficial channels by the sisters’ former social worker, Scott. After this revelation, Miss Fairchild breaks down and confesses, revealing that she renamed Zara “Amy” after another child named Amy who died many years ago. She claims that the original Amy was her daughter and was born after she was raped by her abusive stepfather, John, when she was a teenager. Miss Fairchild claims that John killed Amy after Miss Fairchild tried to run away with the baby. The narrative finally reveals that the unnamed narrator in earlier sections is actually Miss Fairchild; in that setting, she has been speaking to a prison psychologist after being arrested for her crimes.

After undergoing rehabilitation for her drug addiction, Jessica confronts Miss Fairchild in prison. Jessica is now five months pregnant and has resigned from her job due to the drug theft. She asks Miss Fairchild if she was fostered as a replacement for the dead Amy, but Miss Fairchild denies this.

Meanwhile, Norah serves 11 days in prison for assaulting Kevin, who attempted to extort her for explicit photos and videos. Kevin himself is sentenced to four months in prison for the extortion. Norah goes on to date Ishir, a bartender from Port Agatha, and she plans to move there. Alicia is in therapy and has adopted two boys: Aaron, a foster child she knew from her social work, and Theo, the child with whom she was working at the beginning of the story. She is now in a relationship with Meera, a lawyer who helped the sisters during the investigation.

In her private reflections, Miss Fairchild admits to having lied to the prison psychologist in order to gain a mental impairment defense. She reveals that Amy was actually her half-sister: the daughter of her mother and John. Miss Fairchild killed Amy in a fit of jealousy by throwing her against a wall, and her mother buried the body to protect her.