The Golden Spoon by Jessa Maxwell chronicles the filming of what will become the final season of Bake Week, a fictional baking competition show loosely based on The Great British Bake-Off and similar series. Set at a manor house in rural Vermont that is also the childhood home of Bake Week’s creator, Betsy Martin, The Golden Spoon explores the complexities of fame and rivalry as they play out in front of television cameras and behind the scenes. The contestants struggle to impress the judges with their bakes and avoid being targeted by a mysterious saboteur, while also reflecting on their own pasts—and confronting the murder of Archie Morris, Bake Week’s new co-host.

This guide was written using the Simon and Schuster e-book edition, published in 2023.

Content Warning: The book and this guide contain references to sexual assault and harassment.

Plot Summary

The Golden Spoon opens with a prologue. Betsy Martin, creator, host, and judge of the popular baking competition Bake Week, ventures into the tent during a thunderstorm and discovers a dead body. The novel then flashes back to the press release issued two weeks earlier that had described the six contestants participating in the 10th season of Bake Week: Stella Velasquez, a former journalist; Hannah Severson, a server and baker at a diner; Gerald Baptiste, a math teacher; Pradyumna Das, a former CEO; Lottie Byrne, a retired nurse; and Peter Gellar, who works in construction and architectural restoration. The press release also notes that, unlike the previous nine seasons where Betsy hosted alone, she will be joined this year by celebrity chef Archie Morris.

Four days before the events of the prologue, the contestants arrive at Grafton Manor. Gerald arrives late because of train delays. Hannah enters the manor confidently and is committed to winning. Peter misses his family. Stella struggles to find her way to dinner and has a panic attack that leads her to faint. Lottie escorts Stella to dinner and, later, connects with Pradyumna.

On the first day of the competition, the bakers complete challenges related to bread. Betsy resents Archie’s presence on the show. While Hannah attempts to perform for the cameras, Pradyumna enjoys the distraction baking provides him from the boredom he experiences in his everyday life. Lottie embraces her love of the traditional, yet struggles to impress Betsy with her bakes. Stella reflects on how Betsy’s cookbooks comforted her as a child and on how she binge-watched Bake Week in the aftermath of her leaving her job as a journalist. Gerald grows annoyed with how cameras disrupt his baking routines. Hannah flirts with Archie. During the judging, one taste of Peter’s bake reveals that he has mixed up salt and sugar and will be sent home. His mistake is made more perplexing by the discovery that the containers had been deliberately swapped. That evening, the contestants gather in the library to celebrate the end of their first day. Peter shares with Pradyumna his idea that there must be a secret set of stairs to the sealed-off fourth floor. On the way back to her room, Hannah runs into Archie and accepts his invitation to follow him into the East Wing, which has been forbidden to the contestants. On his way back to his room late at night, Pradyumna observes Lottie wandering down the hallway, as if searching for something.

Day two of the competition focuses on pies. After receiving an ominous text message from her agent, Betsy grows annoyed at Archie’s performance of charm. At her baking station, Stella is confused to see that the burner where she had been making her pie filling has been turned up; she was convinced she turned it off. Meanwhile, Lottie reflects on her childhood at Grafton Manor, where she lived with her mother, a housekeeper and cook. Lottie had been abruptly sent away at age 11, shortly after her mother disappeared without a trace. She hopes that her return to Grafton Manor will provide answers about her mother. Upon discovering his homemade orange essence has been replaced with gasoline, Gerald storms out of the tent and claims he has been sabotaged. Hannah, who has been baking pies at the diner where she works for years, confidently prepares the bakes that will make her the winner of the day’s competition. In the process, she accepts Archie’s whispered invitation to meet him after dinner. After an awkward meal, Lottie goes to sleep and dreams of playing with Betsy when they were children. Hannah and Archie meet in the woods and eventually head back to his room. Pradyumna discovers the hidden staircase whose existence had been suggested by Peter and explores the abandoned servants’ quarters. Lottie, conducting her own investigations, interrupts him. After she shares her reason for returning to Grafton Manor, Pradyumna agrees to help her discover what happened to her mother. In her room, Stella prepares for tomorrow’s bake and witnesses Hannah emerging from the woods with Archie.

Early the next morning—Cake Day—Gerald changes his mind about leaving. He returns to the manor and conceals himself in an unused room that overlooks the tent. Betsy meets her agent at a local diner and learns about Archie’s plans to displace Betsy as the host of Bake Week. While Betsy is away, Pradyumna and Lottie search Betsy’s office in the East Wing. They discover a set of recipe cards written by Lottie’s mother. When Betsy returns home sooner than they expected, they conceal themselves in an unlocked room, accidentally seeing Archie and Hannah asleep in Archie’s bed. In the tent, Stella struggles to focus in spite of her anger about Archie’s abuse of power. Sensing that this is not the first time Archie has had inappropriate interactions with young female contestants, she vows to write an exposé. Gerald observes the tent, looking for signs of sabotage. During the judging, Betsy tastes Lottie’s cake, which is inspired by one of her mother’s recipes. She immediately recognizes Lottie and, despite the evident quality of her bake, dismisses her from the competition. Later that evening, Stella sees the recipe cards written by Lottie’s mother and realizes that Betsy has passed them off as her own for decades.

Hours later, Gerald is on the balcony and overhears Melanie, the lead coordinator for Bake Week, discussing him with a man he doesn’t recognize and realizes that Melanie and the man are the saboteurs. Gerald tries to get a better look at the pair but falls from the balcony.

Determined to expose Archie, Stella follows Hannah to the East Wing. Doing so reminds her of the night she was sexually assaulted by a former boss; this was the trauma that had led her to leave journalism. As she enters the room, already speculating about what she will find there, a panic attack overtakes her and she blacks out.  

Betsy finds Archie dead in the tent and begins to call 911, before changing her mind and screaming instead. Throughout the house, various contestants hear the scream. Stella regains consciousness to find herself alone in Archie’s room, soaked from the rain coming in through the open window. The contestants gather in the kitchen to wait for the police. Stella internally wonders if she played a role in Archie’s death. The manor loses power. In the library, Pradyumna scrambles in the dark for a flashlight and discovers Lottie’s birth certificate, which names Richard Grafton as her father. In the kitchen, Hannah and Stella bond over their shared trauma as survivors of sexual abuse by more powerful men. Later, the contestants search for Lottie in the East Wing. They discover Lottie and Betsy arguing over their history. Pradyumna reveals Lottie’s true identity as Betsy’s half-sister. Confronted with her stealing of Lottie’s mother’s recipes, Betsy confesses to having murdered Agnes, Lottie’s mother, in a fit of rage over Agnes’s affair with Betsy’s father. The police arrive, having been alerted by Gerald.

The final part of the story takes place at Grafton Manor—now owned by Lottie—a year later. The contestants have returned to participate in a documentary about Archie’s murder and Betsy’s subsequent arrest. Stella has returned to journalism and has completed a book about Archie’s abuse of contestants on his previous cooking competition show. Lottie and Pradyumna have partnered to restore the house, and Lottie notes with approval that he is growing closer to her daughter, Molly. Outside, Gerald interrupts his interview for the documentary when he recognizes one of the cameramen, Graham, as the man who had been working with Melanie to sabotage the bakers. Gerald exposes Graham to the rest of the crew.

Hannah, now a successful YouTube influencer, begins her interview. Although she only talks about Archie in general terms, she silently remembers what happened in Archie’s room that evening, and how she and Stella defended themselves against Archie in the struggle that led to Archie’s fall and death. Later that evening in the library, Pradyumna contemplates how grateful he is for the relationships he has formed through this experience. The novel ends with a brief epilogue that features Betsy in prison. As Betsy meets with her agent, she continues to make plans for how to achieve fame and success once again.