The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Peters, Amanda. The Berry Pickers. Catapult, 2023.

Amanda Peters's novel The Berry Pickers traces the lives of estranged siblings Joe and Norma. The novel is written from the siblings' alternating first person perspectives and toggles between the past and present throughout. For the sake of clarity, the following summary relies upon the present tense and a linear mode of explanation.

Every summer, Joe and his family travel from their home in Nova Scotia to Northern Maine to pick berries. Although these summers are defined by hard work, heat, and menacing bugs, Joe and his siblings, Ben, Charlie, Mae, and Ruthie, enjoy their seasonal tradition.

The family's relationship with Maine changes in the summer of 1962. After finishing their shift in the blueberry fields, Joe and Ruthie eat lunch, feed crows, and sit on a rock at the edge of the property. Joe gets distracted tossing his bread scraps to the birds. When he turns around, his little sister is missing. Although he and his family search tirelessly for Ruthie, they find no trace of her.

Joe's mother is so devastated by Ruthie's disappearance that she leaves Maine before the end of the picking season. For the next six weeks, the rest of the family continues working and looking for Ruthie. When they leave at the end of the summer, Joe cannot help feeling as if they are abandoning his little sister.

Meanwhile, Norma grows up with her parents, Mother and Father. Although she knows that they love her, Norma often feels stifled by her childhood home. Mother's love is particular suffocating as she limits all of Norma's liberties.

Norma is haunted by a series of recurring dreams. Whenever she has these dreams about a woman near a fire and a little boy she thinks is her brother, Mother gets upset and falls ill. The dreams confuse Norma and make her feel guilty for hurting her mother.

To resolve Norma's psychological unrest, Mother's sister June convinces Mother to let Norma talk to her partner Alice. Alice becomes Norma's makeshift counselor. Norma grows attached to Alice, as she is the first person to talk to her like an intelligent, autonomous individual.

As the years pass, Norma grows increasingly curious about her shadowy childhood. However, the more questions she asks her parents, the more cagey and withholding they become. After discovering family photos from which she is absent and researching genetics, Norma infers that she is adopted.

Some years after Ruthie's disappearance, Joe's brother Charlie is killed at a carnival in Maine one summer. Joe's mom is so devastated by the loss of another child, that the family moves back to Nova Scotia permanently. In the aftermath of Charlie's death, Joe becomes increasingly reliant upon alcohol. He blames himself for both Charlie's and Ruthie's fates. Although he tries to get better, finds a job, and marries, Joe's unresolved grief mutates into rage. After drunkenly attacking his wife one night, he flees home and does not return for many years.

Norma leaves home and moves to Boston for college. Here she meets, falls in love with, and marries Mark. Her marriage gives her hope of creating a new family structure. However, after she loses her first baby, Norma decides to divorce Mark. She fears repeating her mother's patterns.

After Norma's mother grows ill, June decides to tell Norma the truth about her past. She confesses that Mother kidnapped Norma from the berry fields in Maine when she was just four years old. This revelation unshackles Norma. However, after Mother dies, she decides to seek out her biological family with June's help.

Relocating and reuniting with her family offers Norma a sense of peace. Joe is sad that she has returned when he is on his deathbed. However, reuniting with his sister lets him die peacefully. When Norma and her family bury Joe's ashes, Norma lets go of her grief and anger.