The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Tyler, Anne. French Braid. Alfred A. Knopf, 2022.

Anne Tyler's novel French Braid is written from the third person point of view and in the past tense. The novel is set in a variety of settings, including Maryland and Pennsylvania, and spans decades of time. Although the novel frequently shifts between different eras and locations, the following summary employs a linear mode of explanation.

In 1959, Mercy and Robin Garrett took their first family vacation to Deep Creek Lake. They spent a week at a lake house together as a family. Throughout the trip, Mercy, Robin, and their three children, Alice, Lily, and David, struggled to get along. Lily was distracted by her new romance with a college boy named Trent. Mercy was preoccupied with her private art practice. Robin was distracted by his new friendship with a man at the lake. Meanwhile, Alice took up family responsibilities including making meals and caring for her seven-year-old brother, David.

Throughout the years to come, unresolved tensions from the family's trip to the lake continued to linger without discussion.

In 1970, Mercy and Robin drove their last child, David, to college in Islington, Pennsylvania. On the way home, the couple barely spoke. When Robin finally confessed that he was depressed about David's departure, Mercy seconded her husband's feelings. However, she was also secretly excited that all of her children were now out of the house.

Almost as soon as the couple returned home, Mercy gathered up her belongings and started moving into the art studio she rented. Over the weeks and months following, she stopped returning to the house almost entirely. She would leave the studio only to do her laundry or check in on her husband. Meanwhile, Mercy devoted her time to doing whatever it was she pleased, whenever she pleased. She was particularly devoted to developing her craft as a painter of house portraits.

In 1982, David was 30 years old and working as a high school English and drama teacher. Through his job, he met his new girlfriend, Greta, the school nurse. Immediately invested in Greta and her young daughter, Emily, David called his family, saying he wanted to bring them to Easter dinner. The family was puzzled, given that David never spoke about his private life.

Shortly thereafter, Greta wrote a postcard to Alice, announcing that she and David were married. When Lily called David to congratulate him, she realized how excited he was over his new family.

In 1997, one of Alice's children, Candle, began developing a relationship with her grandmother, Mercy. Sharing a love for painting and art, the two started spending regular afternoons together at Mercy's studio. Then one day, they took a trip to New York City to visit an art gallery. On the train ride home, Mercy died in her sleep. Less than a year later, Robin also died.

Over the years following, the remainder of the Garrett family moved away from their hometown, Baltimore, Maryland. The only remaining members in town were Lily and her nephew, Alice's son, Eddie. When Lily told Eddie she would soon move to North Carolina to help her daughter, Serena, with her new baby, Eddie was disappointed.

In 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic led to a national lockdown, David decided to retire from teaching. He was thrilled when his son, Nicholas, and grandson, Benny, came to stay with him and Greta. Throughout the summer of 2020, the family drew closer. David reconciled with hurts from his past, and learned to redefine love and family through his relationships with Nicholas and Benny.