Meet Me at the Lake

After Margaret Brookbanks dies in a car accident, Fern Brookbanks returns to Brookbanks Resort in Muskoka, a place her mother ran with devotion and public warmth. Fern is grieving, angry, and uncertain whether she belongs there, especially because her life and work are in Toronto and her long-held dream is to open her own coffee shop. Jamie Pringle, her ex-boyfriend and the resort’s general manager, tries to steady her through guest expectations, financial pressures, and Margaret’s traditions. On Canada Day, Fern sees a late-arriving guest and recognizes him as Will Baxter, the man who changed her life ten years earlier.

The story then unfolds in alternating timelines. Ten years before, Fern met Will while supervising him as he painted a mural at the Toronto café where she worked. They spent one intense day together exploring the city, talking about art, music, family, and the futures they felt trapped by. Fern was secretly still with Jamie, while Will had a girlfriend, Fred, but their emotional connection grew quickly. Fern confessed that she did not want to return home to run Brookbanks or follow the path Margaret expected of her. Will, who dreamed of sustaining himself as an artist, encouraged Fern to stop living by a ten-year plan and instead choose a one-year plan that belonged to her.

That night, in Fern’s apartment during a storm, they shared intimate truths. Fern told Will about discovering that Eric, a former lifeguard, was her biological father and had abandoned Margaret when she became pregnant. The revelation had driven Fern into a self-destructive period that ended with a house fire from which Margaret and Peter rescued her. Will told Fern about his mother’s abandonment, his anger, his fights, and the grandmother who taught him responsibility. Before leaving the next morning, Will proposed that they meet one year later at the docks at Brookbanks. Because Fern had Jamie, he refused ongoing contact. Fern spent the next year reshaping her life, broke up with Jamie, and arrived at the dock as promised—but Will never came.

In the present, Will explains that Margaret hired him as a consultant before her death, though Fern later learns he originally offered to help. Brookbanks is barely breaking even: Margaret had stopped taking a salary, maintenance has been deferred, and a stylish competitor called The Daisy is luring both guests and staff. Reggie Oswald, the accountant, and real estate agent Mira Khan force Fern to face the hard choices ahead. Selling could bring a high price, possibly to developers or chains, but it would likely erase the resort’s character and cost employees their jobs. Keeping Brookbanks would require major changes, more bookings, and a clearer vision.

Fern’s grief is deepened and complicated by Margaret’s old diaries, which Peter gives her. Through the entries, Fern learns more about Margaret’s youth, her pregnancy, Eric’s departure, and Peter’s quiet love and support. Peter had loved Margaret for years, remained her best friend, and later reveals that their relationship had sometimes been romantic, though it never became the marriage he wanted. These discoveries soften Fern’s view of her mother and help her understand Brookbanks as more than an obligation: it was the community that helped raise her.

As Fern and Will work together, their old chemistry resurfaces. He calms Whitney and Cam’s infant son, Owen, cooks for Fern, presents a long-term plan for the resort, and extends his stay. Fern learns he has given up art for consulting after returning to Toronto to help his sister, Annabel, and her daughter, Sofia. Will lives with them and has built his life around not abandoning the people who depend on him. His sacrifice explains some of his guardedness, but Fern remains wary because he still refuses to fully explain why he missed their meeting nine years earlier.

Fern eventually decides to keep Brookbanks. She tells Peter first, then Jamie, who supports her as a colleague and friend. She and Will begin a physical and emotional relationship, but his private calls and unresolved family burdens make Fern fear she is only part of a temporary escape. Still, she plans to tell him at the end-of-summer dance that she loves him and wants to be part of his real life. Before the dance, Will comforts her as she reads Margaret’s final diary entry, in which Margaret writes lovingly about her unborn daughter and the support surrounding her. Will also reveals that he spoke to Margaret before the accident and told her how much Fern loved the resort, news that reassures Fern her mother knew.

The next morning, Will is gone. At the dance, Fern confirms he checked out and learns by phone that he is at the hospital because Sofia is sick. When Fern offers to help, Will rejects her, calls their relationship a mistake, and does not return her declaration of love. Devastated, Fern goes to his cabin and finds sketches he left behind—including one of her waiting at the dock nine years earlier. She realizes Will had come, seen her, and chosen not to meet her.

A week later, while Fern packs up her Toronto apartment to move back to Brookbanks, Annabel visits. She explains that Sofia had meningitis, that Will panicked and blamed himself for not being home, and that he believes he cannot have both family responsibility and personal happiness. Annabel also reveals that Will’s choices were reshaped the morning after he met Fern ten years ago, when she told him she was pregnant. Will later suffered his own mental health struggle, stopped drawing, and built a stable consulting career, but this summer he had started sketching again and sounded alive. Annabel gives Fern his address and urges her to have a real conversation.

Fern goes to Will’s house and confronts him with the dock sketch. Will admits he saw her years earlier but felt ashamed of the person he had become: he had abandoned art, taken on family obligations, and feared wanting Fern would pull him away from people who needed him. He also apologizes for leaving after Sofia’s illness and admits he loves Fern. Fern sets firm terms: no more secrecy, no more compartmentalizing, and no treating her as separate from his real life. Will tells her about his anxiety and agrees to honesty, help, and returning to art. They reconcile and prepare for Fern to meet Sofia.

Fern spends time with Will, Annabel, and Sofia in Toronto before she and Will try a long-distance relationship. At Brookbanks, Fern grows into ownership, works with Jamie and Peter, builds community, and renames the restaurant Maggie’s in honor of her mother. By spring, Will rearranges his work and moves to the lake while maintaining ties to Annabel and Sofia in Toronto. On June 14, the anniversary of the day they met, Will takes Fern canoeing and proposes with his grandfather’s ring. Fern accepts, and they return to the dock to find Annabel, Sofia, Peter, Jamie, Whitney, and Cam waiting to celebrate. The dock where Will once failed to meet her becomes the place where Fern and Will begin their shared future.