The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Moyes, Jojo. We All Live Here. Viking, 2021. Barnes and Noble Exclusive Edition.

Before the novel begins, Lila’s husband Dan has left her and has started a relationship with a younger mother from their daughter Violet’s school. The woman’s name is Marja. Also prior to the opening of the novel, Lila’s mother Francesca has died suddenly, and her husband, Bill, has come to live with Lila to help with Violet and her teenage sister Celie. They all live in London.

As the novel opens, Lila is struggling with all of this. Bill is very focused on order, and Lila’s house is chaotic. She is a writer who was humiliated when she wrote a best seller about making her marriage air-tight when her husband left her right as she started to promote it. Her literary agent, Anoushka, is pressing her for another book with a lot of sexual escapades because this appeals to middle-aged women. Lila does not have a lot of sexual escapades, so she does not know how she can deliver on this. Still, she needs the money because Dan told her that he cannot keep giving them as much money as he had been, so she tells Anoushka she will write the book.

One day Gene, Lila’s biological father, shows up. She has very harsh feelings for him because he was not present for most of her life. Bill detests him because he had to pick up the pieces of Lila and Francesca’s lives when Gene left. Gene convinces Lila to let him stay one night, but eventually he reveals that he owes people some money and had to leave the States for that reason, and he has to stay with them longer.

Throughout this time, Bill’s friend, Jensen, has been working on developing a memorial garden for Francesca in the backyard. This is yet another stressor for Lila along with all the other work that has to be done on the house because the work is loud and expensive. She and Jensen have some good talks, and when she is particularly stressed out one day she asks him to go out with her that evening as friends. The two have sex, and Lila writes about this in a draft of her book that she sends along to her agent. The agent likes this much better than her previous draft which publishers thought was too depressing.

During this time, Lila has met a single father at school named Gabriel. She likes him a lot, and he gives her someone to speak to when he is at pick up because Lila does not like the other moms who are mainly gossipy and judgmental. Gabriel is aloof over text and does not always respond promptly, but she wants a relationship with him. Eventually they do go out to dinner and have sex, but he asks her to leave afterwards so his daughter does not get confused by having her there. He also suggests they not tell anyone at school because of how gossipy everyone is. He still texts her many nights afterward.

Marja is pregnant with Dan’s child, and when she has to go to the hospital for complications, Lila gets frustrated that her children will now have to share their father. Dan is busy caring for Marja’s son, Hugo, whose father is not helpful.

Jensen keeps pursuing Lila, but she is aloof and does not want a relationship with him. One day, however, he finds a draft of her book and realizes she wrote about him. He is horrified. Meanwhile Bill and Lila realize that Francesca ran away to Dublin for a couple of days while she was married to Bill to have sex with Gene. Lila kicks Gene out, and Bill moves out. He is cared for by Penelope, a local piano teacher that he has been dating.

Bill has a heart attack, and Lila cannot get to him because a tree fell in a storm, blocking her driveway. With no one else to call, she calls Jensen who takes her to the hospital. When she gets home, he is asleep at her house because he came to take down the tree so her daughters would not be alone, and they asked him to stay. Bill slowly recovers and moves back in until he realizes there is too much chaos. He moves home and then in with Penelope.

Violet has her school play and her entire family is there. Lila realizes that Gene did not leave town and has been helping with the play and has gotten the costumes for the cast that she forgot to get. Gene lies and tells Bill that he did not sleep with Francesca. He tells Lila he told this lie because all Francesca ever wanted was Bill. Gene moves back in with the family. Lila makes amends with Jensen, and they begin to date. By the end of the novel, she has realized that she has to move on from Dan and he now seems more like someone she does not know very well.