The Foundling is New York Times bestselling American author Ann Leary's fifth novel and debut historical fiction novel, published in 2022 to positive critical reception. The novel’s protagonist Mary, born Edeltraud Engle, was inspired by Leary’s maternal grandmother, who was also an orphan and worked as a stenographer for a large Pennsylvania institution called Laurelton State Village for Feeble-Minded Women of Childbearing Age. The novel is primarily set in late 1920s Pennsylvania, and Leary interweaves the historical context of class and labor relations, women's rights, disability rights, eugenics, racism, interfaith and interracial marriage, and immigration throughout the novel. Leary blends interpersonal conflicts, moral dilemmas, and history to examine Sexism and the Mistreatment of Women, Eugenics and the Mistreatment of Vulnerable Populations, and Friendship and Loyalty in the Face of Social Injustice.

This guide refers to the hardcover edition of the novel, published by Simon & Schuster in 2022.

Content Warning: This novel discusses eugenics, forced institutionalization, racism, and child sexual abuse. It also uses outdated terminology for discussing mental health and disabilities, which is reproduced in quotation in this guide.

Plot Summary

Through flashbacks in the novel, protagonist Mary reveals that she had an abusive childhood and grew up in an orphanage. Her uncle and father were criminals who also worked as hired muscle for the government, beating up union workers. Mary was regularly molested by her uncle Teddy. With the encouragement of Lillian Faust, her friend at the orphanage, Mary would get her uncle drunk, endure the abuse, and then take his money. One day she put his car into gear so that it would run into a bog, but he woke up when it began rolling, steered himself into a ravine, and died.

The story, relayed through first-person narration and letters, begins when present-day Mary meets Dr. Agnes Vogel, who is the founder and superintendent of Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. The institution is intended to protect society from “feebleminded” women and their offspring. Dr. Vogel hires Mary to work as a secretary, and the next day, she picks her up in her limousine to take her to Nettleton. At first dismissive of Mary, Vogel is later impressed when she helps Charlie, the driver, dislodge the limo after it gets stuck on the side of the road. Mary is initially afraid of working at Nettleton, where she imagines unstable and dangerous women roaming through the woods. After Mary arrives, she discovers that she is to be the secretary for Miss Hartley, the assistant superintendent, rather than Dr. Vogel.

Mary quickly befriends Hal and Betty, the couple with whom she is staying, as well as Gladys, her roommate, who is Dr. Vogel’s secretary. In the first few weeks, she adjusts to her work and befriends Roberta, a widowed nurse who goes by Bertie. Mary is surprised to see that Lillian Faust is an inmate at Nettleton. Mary and Bertie become close friends, and Mary starts dating Jake Enright, a young Jewish journalist who reports on corruption and labor disputes.

One day, Dr. Vogel asks Mary to come with her to see Mr. Whitcomb, the bank president, who raped and impregnated Ida, an inmate who was hired out to the Whitcomb family as a maid. Dr. Vogel blackmails Whitcomb, and Mary is quickly promoted and groomed by Vogel for leadership.

Soon after her promotion, Lillian secretly asks Mary to meet her. They meet in the forest at night, and Lillian reveals that she used to work at a speakeasy and date a Black jazz musician named Graham Carr. Lillian discovered she was pregnant while Graham was in Europe. After the speakeasy owner, Tom Henning, raped her, she married him so she wouldn’t be pregnant out of wedlock. When her child was born, however, she was not white, and Tom was incensed. He reported her to the police, and a doctor sent her to Nettleton. Lillian asks Mary to find her daughter, Rosemary, but Mary refuses and judges Lillian for her interracial relationship and promiscuity.

Lillian says most girls at Nettleton have stories like hers and do not have disabilities, but Mary refuses to believe her. Likewise, Bertie and Jake share information and ask why the Nettleton inmates are treated so badly. Mary is in denial until she sees Lillian teaching the staff how to dance and taking care of other inmates. She then finds Lillian's file, which says she has the intelligence of an eight-year-old, and she suspects that the doctor who administered the IQ test made a mistake.

After Hal and Betty have a second baby, Dr. Vogel asks Mary to move into her house. Dr. Vogel is kind to Mary and reveals that her grandmother was a suffragist and her grandfather was an abolitionist. However, she talks about the dangers of immigration and racial mixing. During this time, Mary makes excuses for Dr. Vogel and sees Jake and Bertie less. She is regarded as Dr. Vogel's pet by the rest of the staff, and Dr. Vogel offers to help Mary enroll at the university. While working closely with Dr. Vogel, Mary sees evidence that she and other powerful people are running a bootlegging operation.

Mary writes to Mother Beatrice, who runs St. Catherine's Orphanage, to say Nettleton won’t provide Catholic mass for inmates, hoping she will intercede. Mother Beatrice writes to the local Catholic priest, but he refuses to help. Bertie comes up with an alternate plan to get Lillian out: She will sing “Ave Maria” at the holiday performance so that people will see that she is not “feebleminded.” Lillian agrees to the plan.

Dr. Vogel confronts Mary about dating Jake, whom she criticizes for being Jewish and a communist. He wrote an article about three girls trapped at Nettleton and the institution’s suspicious alcohol purchases. Mary distances herself from Jake, but she regrets her decision when she learns that Dr. Vogel sent another girl to the Whitcomb family. She realizes Dr. Vogel is capable of anything.

Mary confronts Jake about the article, and he explains that he didn't tell her because he didn't want her to have to lie to Vogel. She accidentally tells him about the bootlegging, and he warns her that Dr. Vogel is working with dangerous people. He asks Mary to marry him and move to New York, and they have sex.

On the day of the choral recital, Lillian sings "Ave Maria.” One of Nettleton’s trustees asks Lillian if she knows Latin, and Dr. Vogel says that she is just parroting the words. However, Lillian explains that she knows Latin and German. Lillian begins screaming and begging when she realizes Dr. Vogel is trying to change the narrative, and she is taken away by attendants and sent to Building Five, where inmates are punished.

Mary, Bertie, and Jake make a plan to drug Dr. Vogel and get Lillian out using the tunnels beneath Littleton. Mary also gives Jake all of Dr. Vogel’s alcohol receipts. At the same time, Dr. Vogel gives Mary her college acceptance and scholarship letter at a dinner party with the president of the university.

During a snowstorm, Mary drugs Dr. Vogel and finds Lillian, who is extremely weak and dirty after only 10 days. Olga Swensen, the matron of the building, threw Lillian's full chamber pot at her and refused her the opportunity to bathe. Once they escape, Mary cannot drive the limo in the snow. Charlie, the driver, and Cloris, the dairy manager, show up to put chains on the milk truck. Mary threatens them with a gun she stole from Dr. Vogel, but they disarm her. However, after they see she is trying to get Lillian out, they help her—Charlie, his family, and other staff have helped several girls escape. Charlie uses the milk truck to drive them to a cabin—Jake has been arrested for his work reporting on unions and a strike at the steel mill. Mary and Charlie leave Lillian at the cabin and return to find the power out at Nettleton. Charlie drops off Mary at Dr. Vogel's house and sounds the alarm about Lillian's escape to deflect attention from him and Mary.

Dr. Vogel is irate about Lillian's escape. After the search party, Mary goes with Charlie to pick up Lillian. Jake is also in the milk truck, badly beaten. When they arrive at Lillian's cabin, there are two old farmers there. Before Charlie can speak to them, Lillian runs out shooting with a shotgun. They fire back, but they only shoot her in the arm. Charlie takes her to a hospital and tells Dr. Vogel that she is dead and in a morgue outside of the sheriff's jurisdiction. They also take Jake to the hospital to be treated for his broken ribs and a punctured lung.

Reporters and townspeople arrive at Nettleton because of a story published by Ike Brown, a colleague of Jake’s, about the bootlegging operation and the inmates’ working conditions. Mary, Bertie, Betty, and Cloris show the board of trustees the horrible conditions at Building Five, and the board convenes an emergency meeting. Dr. Vogel resigns from her position after blaming everything on Olga and Mrs. Hartley, but she does not serve jail time because other important figures would be implicated in the bootlegging scheme. She is later appointed as the first female department head of the Pennsylvania Department of Health and Welfare.

Mary moves to Manhattan with Jake, where she works as a secretary at a refrigerator manufacturing company. She is best friends with Olivia Moore— Lillian's new assumed identity. Lillian is reunited with Rosemary, and they plan to travel abroad to meet with Graham. She is able to start a new life because she was an orphan with no records or identity outside of the orphanage and Nettleton. In the end, her anonymity and poverty contribute to her salvation.