The Cider House Rules is the sixth novel by the American Canadian author John Irving. It was published in 1985 by William Morrow and Company. The novel was made into a movie directed by Lasse Hallstrom in 1999. Other works by this author include Avenue of Mysteries, A Son of the Circus, and Until I Find You.

This guide uses the 2012 William Morrow Kindle Edition of The Cider House Rules.

Plot Summary

The Cider House Rules is a Bildungsroman, or a coming-of-age novel; it is set in the 1930s through to the 1950s. Its protagonist is Homer Wells, an orphan in rural Maine. Homer lives in an orphanage called St. Cloud’s, in a poor inland valley town of the same name. The town was once a prosperous logging town but now is mostly abandoned. The director of the orphanage—which is also a maternity hospital—is Dr. Wilbur Larch. Dr. Larch is also a secret abortionist; at the time, abortion is illegal. He believes that delivering women of unwanted children is “the Lord’s work” and has made it his mission both to help these women and to document his work and the history of the town (67). He calls his book-in-progress A Brief History of St. Cloud’s. 

As a baby and a young child, Homer Wells is adopted by several foster families. However, he is always returned to the orphanage and eventually comes to realize that his true home is there. Homer is both calm and a fast learner, and he becomes the unspoken favorite of Dr. Larch. Dr. Larch decides that if he is to remain in the orphanage, he must be “of use” (7). Homer begins by helping with maintenance and caretaking chores around the orphanage, such as taking out the garbage and reading out loud to the other orphans at night. However, he eventually begins to assist Dr. Larch with delivering babies. When Homer discovers a fetus while taking out the garbage, he confronts Dr. Larch, who tells him about his secret work at the hospital.

As Homer becomes a teenager, he begins to rebel against Dr. Larch’s tutelage. He decides that while he is not against a woman’s right to choose, he does not want to perform abortions. He also becomes entangled with Melony, the only other orphan his age. Melony dislikes life at St. Cloud’s and is angry with her unknown mother for leaving here there. She tells Homer that if he can find a record of her mother’s identity in Dr. Larch’s office, she will perform sexual favors for him. Homer is caught snooping by Dr. Larch, who destroys all records of the mothers who drop off their children. Nevertheless, Homer and Melony begin a sexual relationship; Homer is not in love with Melony, but Melony is in love with him.

Homer’s path collides with a young coastal couple named Wally Worthington and Candy Kendall. Wally is the wealthy heir to an apple orchard called Ocean View; his girlfriend, Candy, is the daughter of a lobsterman. When Candy finds that she is pregnant, the two travel to St. Cloud’s for an abortion. Wally and Candy are both impressed by Homer and his calm demeanor, and Wally asks Homer if he would like to drive back with them to Ocean View. While the visit is meant to be a short one, Dr. Larch and the orphans all understand that Homer will not be returning. Furious at Homer’s departure, Melony runs away from the orphanage to find him.

Homer begins a new life at Ocean View with the Worthington family. He is taught how to swim by Candy and her mother Olive and learns lobstering from Candy’s father Ray. He also becomes close to Wally and learns the routines of the apple orchard. Meanwhile, Dr. Larch tries to manage Homer’s life from a distance. Wishing to keep Homer out of World War II, he invents a minor heart problem for him; he tells Candy and Wally about Homer’s condition but does not tell Homer himself. Melony travels to different orchards all over Maine looking for Homer but fails to find Ocean View. She works briefly at another orchard called York Farms and then hitchhikes to Bath, where she works at a shipyard assembly line.

Wally joins the war draft as a fighter pilot; he is sent out to training camps and then to India. One day, the Worthington family receives the news that Wally’s plane crashed over Burma, and that Wally is presumed dead. Candy and Homer’s relationship turns romantic. One night in the cider house, where the orchard workers stay and work during picking season, they conceive their son. They keep their relationship and Candy’s pregnancy a secret from Ray and from Wally’s mother, Olive. They go to St. Cloud’s to deliver their son, whom Homer names Angel. While still at St. Cloud’s, they receive a telegram from Olive telling them that Wally is not dead after all; he is only severely wounded. Homer and Candy return to St. Cloud’s, still keeping their relationship a secret and telling everyone that their son is an adopted orphan.

The novel then jumps forward 15 years. Wally is back from the war, and he and Candy have married; he has lost the use of his legs and must use a wheelchair. Homer remains at the orchard with the couple and stays in a bedroom of his own; he and Candy have kept up the deception that Angel is adopted, while remaining secret lovers. At St. Cloud’s, Dr. Larch is becoming increasingly eccentric and isolated. He is targeted by a meddlesome board of directors, who believe he is too elderly to run an orphanage. Dr. Larch also worries that they will find out about his abortion services. He invents an elaborate false identity for Homer, so that Homer can come back to the orphanage, take over Dr. Larch’s role, and throw the board of directors off of his track. Homer is to assume the name of Fuzzy Stone, the name of an actual orphan who died at St. Cloud’s as a boy. Dr. Larch has given Fuzzy an alternate adult life, including a Harvard medical diploma and a conservative outlook on abortion. However, Homer refuses to go through with this plan; his views on abortion remain unchanged.

The harvest season crew, a group of workers from South Carolina, arrives. The group is led by Mr. Rose, a reserved but menacing man. He brings along his teenaged daughter Rose and Rose’s nameless newborn baby. Angel falls in love with Rose, and Mr. Rose and the other workers take note of his attraction. One day, Rose shows Angel the knife marks on her body and intimates that her father made them. Angel also learns that Rose is pregnant again—likely by her father, through rape—and has been trying to abort her baby. He tells Homer about Rose’s pregnancy and Homer calls St. Cloud’s, trying to arrange for an abortion there. On the call, he learns that Dr. Larch, who has been addicted to ether all of his life, has died from an ether overdose. Homer therefore performs Rose’s abortion himself. He also resolves that he will do what Dr. Larch asked him to do and return to St. Cloud’s as Fuzzy Stone.

Rose and her baby run away, and Mr. Rose dies from knife wounds. He implies that his daughter knifed him but also insists that his death be called a suicide. After the other harvest workers leave, Homer tells Angel the truth about his parentage; Candy, separately, tells Wally the truth. Homer then returns to St. Cloud’s under a new identity to take up Dr. Larch’s work.