Who Is Maud Dixon?

Florence meets Helen in the main house for dinner. Over dinner, Florence asks if Helen’s new book is a sequel to Mississippi Foxtrot, but Helen says it is a stand-alone novel. Helen knows that the public wants a sequel, but she does not want to give it to them.

Helen tells Florence that her new novel needs research on Morocco, which Florence can help her with. She says that the novel is about an American woman who moves to Morocco, like a Peter Bowles novel. Florence says that she has never read Bowles, but Helen does not judge her.

Florence asks her if she wishes that people knew that she wrote Mississippi Foxtrot, but Helen says that she enjoys her anonymity. Helen says that she needed to write Mississippi Foxtrot to get it out of her system so that she could write other novels in the future. Now, Helen says people want the Maud Dixon name, and they do not want to know her identity because people like the secrecy.

The next day, Florence goes through Helen’s hundreds of unread emails. Helen tells Florence that one of her duties will be to type up her rough drafts, so she gives Florence a stack of her writing. Helen gives her all her passwords and bank account numbers, telling Florence that she will handle all of Helen’s billing.

When Florence logs into Helen’s bank account, she sees that she has over $3 million. Florence reads the new manuscript excitedly, which is titled The Age of Monsters. Florence goes upstairs to Helen’s office because she has trouble reading her writing.

Suddenly, she hears a crash from within one of the rooms and Helen emerges from her office, looking furious. She tells Florence never to disturb her when she is working. Florence apologizes and asks for clarification on Helen’s writing. Helen says that Florence should make her best guess and underline the word for Helen to review later.

After a few weeks, Helen goes to town, leaving Florence in the house. After Helen leaves, Florence goes up to her office, imagining what it would be like to be her. Florence remembers a conversation with Greta from a few days earlier. Greta told Florence that she enjoyed her work and that if Florence helps her get information on Helen’s new book, they could talk about publishing her work once she finishes helping Helen. Florence knew that Greta was playing her, but she decided to agree to give Greta information about the book to protect her interests. Florence calls Greta but tells her that she does not know a lot about the new novel, other than the general premise about an American woman going to Morocco.

Florence thinks about how much she enjoys the seclusion of Helen’s home because she does not feel the pressures of society. She thinks about how she asked Helen how she learned societal rules without growing up in high society, and Helen told her that she watched people and then mimicked them. Helen said that anyone can become something if they pretend for long enough.

Florence starts dressing like Helen because she admires her style. Florence decides that when she returns to New York, she will have an entirely new persona. During a cooking lesson, Florence cuts herself and Helen tells her to go to her bathroom to get a Band-Aid. In the bathroom, Florence finds the Band-Aid and Helen’s prescription for clonazepam, which Florence knows is prescribed for anxiety.

Florence enjoys the changing seasons in the countryside because she always felt claustrophobic in New York City and Florida. One day, she goes for a walk and meets a neighbor walking his golden retriever named Bentley. The neighbor greets Florence and says that she is the second person who has visited Helen recently. Later, when Florence asks Helen who her other visitor was, Helen says that no one has been to visit her and that the neighbor must be confused with another house.

Florence hears a screech outside and finds an owl that appears to be sick. Florence wants to take it to a vet, but Helen says that he must have eaten a mouse that ate rat poison and that it will be dead soon. Florence feels shocked by Helen’s coldness, but Helen says that people need to only care for themselves and stop wasting energy feeling sympathy for other things.

As Florence types Helen’s manuscript, she realizes that it is not as good as Mississippi Foxtrot. Florence starts editing the manuscript by adding or taking away from it as she feels it needs. Florence feels like Helen’s collaborator, especially since Helen never talks to Florence about her edits, so she assumes that she likes them.

One day, Florence sees a police car pull into the driveway, and Helen goes out to meet him. Florence watches Helen talk to the police officer, although she cannot hear what they are saying. When the car leaves, Helen tells Florence that the officer was there about her numerous speeding tickets.

The next night, Helen asks Florence if she can get a passport quickly because she wants to take a trip to Morocco to conduct research for the novel. Helen tells Florence to expedite her passport so that they can leave by the end of the week. She says that they can fly into Marrakesh, then travel to Semat, which is a small town where her novel takes place. Helen asks Florence to book a villa for them to stay in Semat. Vera calls, but Florence ignores it. Helen asks if she wants to talk about Vera, and Florence says she has been avoiding her calls because they have very different opinions about life.

Helen tells Florence that she felt the same way about her family in Mississippi and that eventually, she cut ties with them because of their differences. Florence wonders if she will be able to write more without Vera weighing her down, so she texts Vera that she will be out of the country for work and will not be able to talk for several weeks.

On Monday, Florence goes into the city to expedite her passport. She runs into Amanda on the street. Florence wishes she could tell Amanda what she was really doing to make her jealous. Florence hopes that the trip to Morocco will change her, because she feels like she is running out of time to make herself interesting enough to be the novelist she wants to be.