Margaret 2011

Lisa Cohen, a 17-year-old Manhattan student, is out shopping on the Upper West Side when she crosses paths with bus driver Gerald Maretti. As she runs alongside his moving bus, Maretti allows himself to become distracted, and a pedestrian, Monica Patterson, is fatally struck. Monica dies in Lisa’s arms. At first, Lisa tells the police that the driver had a green traffic signal, but out of remorse she changes her story later, keeping the truth to herself as she wrestles with guilt.

Lisa’s world at home is uneasy and complex. She has a rocky relationship with her mother, Joan, an actress who has recently found success starring in a play. Their frequent conflicts center on Joan’s theater career and her new boyfriend, Ramon, with Lisa feeling ambivalent about both. Amid these tensions, Lisa finds herself in a back-and-forth discussion with her father about a forthcoming trip to his home, a thread that underscores the unfinished business and strain within the family.

As the days unfold, Lisa’s life takes several turns that pull her in different directions. She flirts with her math teacher, Aaron Caije, and they eventually have sex. She also makes a decision to lose her virginity to classmate Paul Hirsch. In the heat of these experiences, she participates in passionate debates with classmates about politics and terrorism, showing a mind that is probing and unsettled by the world around her. Later, in a deeply personal moment, she confides to Caije, in the presence of another teacher, that she had an abortion and is not sure who the father was, mentioning there were several possibilities. The emotional gravity of these revelations sits alongside the ongoing shadow of Monica’s death.

The emotional center of the story shifts as Lisa confronts Maretti at his home. He pretends to have forgotten the details of the accident, but when confronted again he reveals in anger that he does remember, and believes he did nothing wrong. This confrontation galvanizes Lisa to pursue his firing with a fierce resolve. She does not navigate this fight alone: alongside Monica’s best friend, Emily, and Monica’s cousin, Abigail, Lisa becomes involved in a wrongful death lawsuit against the Metropolitan Transit Authority, aiming to see Maretti dismissed and to secure monetary damages for Abigail as Monica’s next of kin.

The relationship between Lisa and Emily develops in fits and starts; they become close, but the bond is rocky, especially during a later argument in which Emily accuses Lisa of using the situation to inject drama into her life. The social orbit around the lawsuit widens to include Joan and Ramon as well; after an after-show dinner, Ramon’s remark — perceived by Emily as anti-Semitic — strains the group further. Joan and Ramon experience a minor falling out, and Ramon dies of a heart attack sometime after.

As the legal process concludes, the case yields a settlement of $350,000, but the MTA refuses to fire Maretti, citing the concern that firing him could inflame a broader labor dispute. Abigail later reveals that money was the primary motivation behind accepting the settlement, a revelation that unsettles Lisa deeply. In a wrenching moment, Lisa confesses that she sees herself as Monica’s killer, a weight she carries with growing intensity.

In the final stretch of the story, Lisa and Joan attend an opera that Joan was scheduled to see with Ramon before his death. On the way, Lisa spots Maretti driving the same bus that had ended Monica’s life, sharing a brief, charged moment with him. Inside the opera hall, Lisa is overwhelmed by the cumulative emotion of all that has happened. She bursts into tears, and in a tender, shared moment, she and her mother reconnect, crying together and holding each other as the performance continues, their bond renewed even as the events of the past continue to loom over them.