The Goldfinch Summary

Theo Decker is a 13-year-old boy, living with his mother Audrey in New York. After getting into trouble with his reckless friend Tom Cable, Theo has been suspended from school. Before he and Audrey go in for a meeting about his suspension, they briefly duck into the Met, where there is an exhibition about the Dutch Golden Age. Here, Theo is captivated by a young red-haired girl. Audrey points out a painting called The Goldfinch by Carel Fabritius, which she says is “the first painting I ever really loved.” They separate briefly, agreeing to meet up again in the museum giftshop.

Suddenly there is a huge explosion, which knocks Theo out. When he wakes up, he finds an old man (Welty) who gestures to Theo to take The Goldfinch, and also gives him his ring. Welty tells Theo to “ring the green bell” at a place called “Hobart and Blackwell.” Carrying the painting and ring, Theo manages to get out of the museum and onto the street, which is crowded with people and first responders.

Theo goes back to his and Audrey’s apartment, hoping to find her there. He waits there for her, but eventually two social workers come to inform him that she is dead. Since Theo’s father Larry is an alcoholic who recently abandoned Theo and Audrey, disappearing to start a “new life,” the social workers bring Theo to the apartment of his friend Andy Barbour, whose wealthy family will look after him while permanent custody is arranged. While Theo struggles to resume his normal life at school, the social workers contact his paternal grandparents in Maryland; however, it becomes clear that they do not want to take Theo in.

Theo looks up Hobart and Blackwell and discovers it is an antiques shop in the West Village. After going there and ringing the green bell, he is greeted by a man who introduces himself as Hobie. Theo tells Hobie about meeting Welty, who died in the attack. The red-haired girl Theo saw was Welty’s niece Pippa. She survived but is badly injured; Theo goes into a bedroom to see her, and briefly holds her hand. He is disappointed to learn that she will soon be moving to Texas to live with her aunt Margaret.

Soon, Theo starts visiting Hobie regularly and helping out in his antiques workshop. He considers telling Hobie about The Goldfinch but is too worried about getting in trouble. Unexpectedly, Theo’s father Larry and his girlfriend Xandra arrive in New York and announce that they are taking Theo to live with them in Las Vegas. They take Theo back to his and Audrey’s apartment to pack a suitcase, and Theo secretly retrieves The Goldfinch and leaves it downstairs with the doormen. Days later, he goes back and retrieves the bag containing the painting to bring with him to Vegas.

In Vegas, the house where Larry and Xandra live is barely furnished, and is surrounded by empty houses at the edge of a new development. At his new school, Theo meets a boy called Boris who is Ukrainian and Polish but has lived all over the world. Boris’ father, Mr. Pavlikovsky, is also an alcoholic, and his mother is also dead. The two boys soon become inseparable. Neither Boris nor Theo gets much money from their fathers, so they resort to shoplifting food and leaving restaurants without paying. They spend their afternoons drinking, often to the point of vomiting or passing out. On Christmas Eve, Larry takes Xandra, Theo, and Boris out to a fancy dinner on the Strip, and gives the boys $500 each as a gift.

A year passes, and Theo turns 15. Shortly after, Boris starts dating an older girl he nicknames Kotku, whom Theo doesn’t like. Increasingly absorbed by this relationship, Boris starts hanging out with Theo less. Larry, meanwhile, keeps being uncharacteristically kind and generous with Theo, and tells Theo that he is opening a savings account for him. He asks for Theo’s social security number in order to open the account. Soon after, a man named Mr. Silver comes to Theo’s house, claiming that Larry owes him money and sending a message of warning. Concerned that Mr. Silver’s presence might mean The Goldfinch is no longer safe at his home, Theo takes it to school and leaves it in his locker for a few weeks, before bringing it back home.

Larry tells Theo that he is opening a restaurant and that he needs to borrow some of the money Audrey put aside for Theo in order to pay the startup costs. He asks Theo to call Audrey’s lawyer, Bracegirdle, and tell him he needs $65,000 for private school fees. However, Bracegirdle says that Theo can’t withdraw money from the account, and that the money will need to be paid directly to the school. When Theo tells him this, Larry lets out a horrifying scream.

Boris and Theo take acid together, and Theo feels an immense sense of peace, love, and happiness. Mr. Silver comes back to Theo’s house, this time accompanied by several men, one of whom is carrying a baseball bat. He says that Larry owes him $50,000 and needs to pay. A few hours after Mr. Silver leaves, Xandra comes home and tells Theo that Larry is dead. He was blind drunk and driving on the highway, heading away from Las Vegas, when he hit a trailer-tractor and was killed instantly. Xandra’s friends come over to take care of her; she drinks and takes prescription medication until she passes out. While Xandra is unconscious, Boris and Theo go through her things and discover a stash of prescription pills along with a large amount of cocaine. They take these for themselves, along with cash from her wallet.

Theo says he needs to go to New York immediately, before Child Protection Services find him, and asks Boris to come with him. Boris is reluctant to leave, saying he needs more time. Eventually Theo goes, taking Xandra’s dog Popper with him. After finding out that dogs aren’t allowed on the Amtrak, Theo gets on the first of several buses that will take him to New York, hiding Popper when he finds out animals aren’t permitted on the bus either. Once he gets to New York, Theo runs into Mr. Barbour, who pushes him away and shouts, “No more handouts!”

Theo goes to Hobie’s house and finds both Hobie and Pippa there. Hobie says Theo can stay, although he forces Theo to call Xandra, who scolds him for stealing from her and warns him that he has become a delinquent. Pippa is on vacation from her boarding school in Switzerland, and she soon leaves New York. Theo applies to an early-college program, hoping this will allow him to stay living in New York with Hobie. Bracegirdle sets up a living stipend, and after Theo gains admission to the early-college program, it is agreed that he will stay with Hobie. Concerned that Hobie will find The Goldfinch, Theo rents a small storage unit and keeps the painting there, hidden inside a camping tent bag so no one would know what it is.

Eight years pass. Now an adult, Theo is walking along Madison Avenue when he runs into Platt Barbour, his old friend Andy’s older brother. Looking disheveled, Platt tells Theo that Andy and Mr. Barbour recently died in a sailing accident. Mr. Barbour had been suffering from bipolar disorder for years and was experiencing a manic episode on the day they died. Platt takes Theo to see Mrs. Barbour, who seems weak and very sad, but is delighted to see him. As Theo leaves, Platt laments that his little sister, Kitsey, has been dating Theo’s old delinquent friend Tom Cable.

Meanwhile, Theo has become Hobie’s new business partner, and has been running a scheme wherein he sells bad or fake antiques as authentic. If the client realizes that the antique is not real, Theo offers to buy it back, and if the client accepts then Theo is able to sell it for an even higher price as authentic based on the fact that it has now officially been part of an important person’s collection. Thanks to the scheme, the shop has been turning a huge profit, but now one of the clients, Lucius Reeve, has refused Theo’s offer to buy back the bad antique and won’t leave the matter alone.

Theo has also developed an addiction to prescription opiates. He is obsessively in love with Pippa, who is living in London and dating an English man named Everett. Theo has dinner at the Barbours’, and notices that Kitsey watches him throughout the meal. Theo meets Reeve again, and Reeve tells him that he knows Theo stole The Goldfinch. Theo is terrified, but Reeve then shows him an article indicating that the painting is being used as collateral by criminals in Miami, and that a botched raid means it’s gone back underground. Stunned, Theo (truthfully) tells Reeve he has nothing to do with this and doesn’t know what it’s all about. Theo confesses his scheme of selling bad antiques to Hobie, but downplays its scale. Hobie is horrified, and Theo feels wracked with guilt and regret.

More time passes. It is almost Christmas. Theo and Kitsey, who are now engaged, are eating lunch and discussing the (elaborate) plans for their wedding. Theo feels happy about the stability and joy his relationship with Kitsey brings, but overwhelmed by the size and expense of the wedding. On the street in the East Village, Theo runs into Boris, accompanied by a woman named Myriam. Boris and Theo go to a Polish bar and spend hours catching up on the years in which they haven’t seen each other. After getting very drunk, Theo takes Boris to Hobie’s house so Boris can see Popper again.

Boris’ driver Gyuri takes Boris and Theo to a club in Queens, where they keep drinking and doing cocaine. At the end of the night, when they are sitting in a 24-hour bar, Boris mentions that he stole The Goldfinch from Theo while they were still in high school in Las Vegas. Theo is stunned and horrified, and Boris is apologetic, though surprised that Theo didn’t already know this. Boris says that although the painting has fallen out of his possession, he will get it back for Theo.

Theo goes to Kitsey’s apartment and sees her kissing Tom on the street. Later, when Theo confronts Kitsey, she characterizes her engagement to Theo as an arrangement that will benefit them and everyone around them. Surprised at his lack of anger, Theo stays overnight at her apartment. Pippa arrives at Hobie’s after her plane is unexpectedly diverted, and Theo takes her out to dinner and movie. They have an intense conversation, and Theo feels overwhelmed with happiness.

At Theo’s engagement party, a sinister man named Havistock Irving indicates that he knows about the scheme Theo has been running and is prepared to expose him. Later, Hobie tells Theo that Irving and Reeve are associates who steal from rich elderly people, and they previously went by different names. At the end of the party, Boris tells Theo that they are going away for a few days. In the car, he tells Theo bring his passport and however much cash he can gather, explaining that they are going to Amsterdam to get The Goldfish. Theo takes $16,000 from the shop register.

In Amsterdam, Boris explains that they are going to pretend that Theo is buying the painting, but only give the sellers some of the money. When they arrive at the empty cafe where the transaction is supposed to take place, the sellers act shifty, as one of their men hasn’t shown up. The deal goes ahead anyway, but Boris and his crew take advantage of their greater numbers to take the painting without paying at all. Although Boris and his men are victorious, Theo is worried about a young boy he saw in the café’s kitchen.

In a parking garage the men split up, leaving Boris and Theo to take one car while everyone else takes another. Just as Boris and Theo are about to get into the car, they are confronted by two men, Martin and Frits, who demand that Boris hand over the painting. Although Boris does so, a shootout ensues, and Martin and Frits both end up dead. Boris takes Theo back to his hotel and instructs him to wait there for him. He tells Theo not to call him, but just to wait, and gives him a small bag of pure heroin to take if he wants.

Theo does some of the heroin and feels wonderful, but when he comes down he feels terrified and extremely ill. Days pass; Theo will not let himself leave the room, and only orders room service in the early hours of the morning. He tries to make plans to leave Amsterdam but realizes that his passport is in the glovebox of Gyuri’s car. On Christmas Day, just as Theo is preparing to turn himself into the police, Boris comes back, and orders a festive breakfast. Theo is in an abject, furious state, but Boris explains that everything has worked out. He managed to trace The Goldfinch to an apartment in Frankfurt, where it turns out many other priceless stolen masterworks were also being stored. Boris arranged an anonymous tip off to the police, and is now splitting the huge sum of reward money between himself, his crew, and Theo. It is clear that this is one of the most significant recoveries of stolen art in history.

Theo flies back to New York and finds Hobie furious. He tells Hobie the truth about the bad antiques scheme, The Goldfinch, and his time in Amsterdam. He then spends a year travelling, buying back all the bad antiques using the reward money. He reflects that it is noble to devote one’s life to beautiful objects, which gives a person a taste of immortality and connects them to a community of people across history who love art and beauty.