Summary of Lauren Groff's Fates and Furies tells the story of Lancelot and Mathilde Satterwhite, a married couple. The first section of the book is told mostly from the perspective of Lancelot, or Lotto as he’s known to friends and family, a privileged actor-turned-playwright. The second section is told from the perspective of Mathilde, Lotto’s beautiful, devoted, yet emotionally damaged wife. Gradually, the novel unfolds their separate histories and reveals their secrets. After tragedy strikes their marriage, Mathilde channels the fury that has been building into vengeance and finally comes to accept her fate.

The first section, “Fates,” opens with Lotto and Mathilde’s elopement in 1990. The two 22-year-olds, who had met just two weeks earlier, make love passionately on a beach in Maine. When Lotto kisses her and calls her his, Mathilde resists. “Nobody belongs to anybody,” she says…