Nick Dunne Timeline & Summary

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• Nick meets Amy at a party in New York, where they are both working as writers. He loses her number, but catches up with her at an outdoor market months later.
• Nick and Amy marry on her parents' beachfront property on Nantucket Sound.
• As part of a series of layoffs at his magazine, Nick loses his job. Amy's job meets the same fate a few weeks later.
• In the wake of his mother's diagnosis of stage four cancer and his father's worsening Alzheimer's, Nick and Amy move back to North Carthage to care for them.
• Nick takes several steps to establish a new life in North Carthage after his mother's death, including opening a bar with Go and getting a teaching job at the community college.
• Driven by dissatisfaction at home, Nick begins an affair with a student, Andie Hardy.
• Amy disappears on the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary.
• Nick begins a mostly dishonest relationship with the cops investigating her disappearance.
• As Nick works to solve Amy's treasure hunt, he feels himself drawn back to her in spite of the troubles in their marriage.
• Go discovers Nick's affair with Andie and damages their solid relationship by giving into suspicion that he killed Amy.
• The media begins to turn against Nick and fuel suspicion against him.
• In a disastrous press conference, Nick's neighbor, Noelle Hawthorne, publicly reveals that Amy was pregnant.
• Nick hires New York celebrity attorney Tanner Bolt as legal representation.
• Nick reaches the end of the anniversary treasure hunt and discovers that Amy is framing him for murder.
• In a desperate move to regain the public's support, Nick gives a drunken video interview for a crime blog. It momentarily paints him as a good guy, until…
• Andie speaks out about their affair and everyone hates him again.
• Amy's parents withdraw their support from Nick.
• Nick gives an exclusive interview to network newswoman Sharon Schieber, but despite how well the interview goes, the cops surprise him with evidence of Amy's diary, which details explosive rages and threats from Nick to kill her.
• Tanner and Nick unsuccessfully present the theory that Amy is framing him to the police.
• Nick is arrested for Amy's murder.
• In a shocking turn of events, Amy returns home, claiming that her high school boyfriend, Desi, held her hostage, raping and abusing her until she was able to kill him and escape.
• Nick continues to live with Amy, although he is uneasy about her story and worried that she is still out to get him.
• As a way to expose his wife, Nick begins writing a memoir of the case.
• Amy announces that she is pregnant, having used Nick's sperm samples from the fertility clinic to do the deed. Fearful of allowing the child to grow up with Amy as his only adult role model, Nick agrees to delete his book and stay with her.