Chapter 1 of The Hawthorne Legacy picks up where The Inheritance Games left off. Avery Kylie Grambs, the book’s protagonist and first-person point-of-view narrator, has been unexpectedly left a billion-dollar fortune by Tobias Hawthorne. In his will, Tobias stipulates that Avery must live in the Hawthorne House mansion for one year and that she can’t spend more than three nights away from the house. Avery is now residing in Hawthorne House. Also living in the house are Avery’s older half-sister and guardian, Libby Grambs, and the Hawthorne brothers: Nash Westbrook Hawthorn, Graham Davenport Hawthorne, Jameson Winchester Hawthorne, and Alexander “Xander” Blackwood Hawthorne.

At the conclusion of The Inheritance Games, Avery discovered that Tobias Hawthorne’s son, Tobias Hawthorne II or “Toby”—who had long been presumed deceased—is alive. Avery knew him as a man without a home named “Harry,” with whom she used to play chess. When The Hawthorne Legacy opens, Avery discusses Toby/Harry with Jameson, who says, “Tell me again about the first time the two of you played chess in the park” (1).

The mystery of Toby/Harry—where he is and why he’s fled his family fortune and is in hiding—drives the plot of The Hawthorne Legacy.