PLOT
SUMMARY FOR JUST BILL, a fable
Following an exciting flash-forward
prologue, the story begins on a May evening
in Naples, Florida at the Donegal Golf and Country Club.
From outside Glenda and Cliff
Gilmore’s pool enclosure, four dogs watch as a grieving Glenda pours out her
heart to Hotspur, her husband's border collie. Two hours earlier,
Glenda was shopping when Cliff died playing Frisbee with Hotspur. Much
younger than Cliff, and a former model, Glenda is the object of gossip and
dislike among the older wives at Donegal.
The reader is next introduced to
Bill and his family. The dog is seen as both simple and sympathetic,
but a certain dislike is revealed in his master's wife. She objected
when her husband brought home a stray.
From here, the story develops three
plot lines. Neglected by his dead master's grieving widow, the
high-energy Hotspur grows frenzied. Emma, a poodle, loves her
refined, articulate mistress. But at eighty-four, “Madame” is starting to
slip. She’s been getting traffic tickets lately, and is more
forgetful.
Most important are events with
Bill's family. His master's son has remarried, and has a new
baby. The three arrive for a visit, along with two older children
from the father’s first marriage. Ten-year-old Ruby used to be the
light of her dad's life, but not now.
Soon after, a thunderstorm terrifies
Bill. With his master out of the house, a silent bond is established
when Ruby stays with the dog until the storm subsides. But an accident occurs
that leads a frightened Ruby to tell a lie.
Out of this untruth rises the
novel's central conflict. With the onset of hurricane season, Bill's family
makes ready to head north to their lake home in Michigan. Bill
eagerly awaits the trip, but because of Ruby’s lie, his master reluctantly
delivers his dog to an animal shelter.
From this point, Bill's story is
interspersed with that of his human family. The big dog is adopted
by a young man who wants a guard dog. When his house is robbed, he
returns Bill to the shelter. Days later, in the confusion
caused by a tropical storm, Bill escapes. Running along a
storm-lashed highway (the flash-forward scene in the prologue), Bill smells the
Donegal Golf Club, his old home. He dashes through the
lightning-charged golf course, makes it to his master's house and takes shelter
under a patio table.
In the following days, the dog
forages for food. He is poisoned. When a girl comes to service
his master's swimming pool, she calls Animal Services to collect the dying
animal.
Before this happens, other dogs
communicate recent events at the club. Emma is gone, her mistress
now in assisted-living. As for two dachshunds seen earlier, they
never flew north this year. Their owners are fighting, and the reader
understands risky investments have ruined them.
Up in Michigan, nothing is
going well. Bill's master can't help resenting having been forced to
give up his dog. While his son supervises the building of a new
house, the family is staying at the lake with the
grandparents. There, a sad, guilty Ruby has retreated into
games and crafts. It is decided she will fly down with her
grandfather to check on the Naples house.
And all summer, Glenda Gilmore has
been grieving over her dead husband. When she learns about a sick
dog found at a neighbor’s, she goes to the shelter. The attendant
who let Bill escape feels responsible. Bill seems to have no chance,
but the girl gives Glenda hope.
From here to the end of the novel,
the value and power of the connection between dogs and people is concentrated
in the bond that develops between Ruby and Glenda. The grandfather
comes to see the two have united in their effort to save his dog. He
knows what his wife would say about allowing Ruby to stay at "the
floozy's," so he conceals it. Something important is going on
between the widow and little girl.
Parallels between pets and humans
are obvious in Just Bill. In our time, what is there to
do but make leaps of faith, and hope for the best? The novel’s
central message is both simple and profound: kindness is fundamental
to us, and our love of dogs contributes to it.
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