The Inheritance Games

High-schooler Avery Kylie Grambs is playing chess in the park with her friend Harry, a homeless man, when she is distracted by memories of her dead mother. That evening, Avery returns home to her older half-sister Libby, who reveals that her creepy on-off boyfriend Drake is moving back in. The next day, a young man named Grayson Hawthorne finds Avery and explains that she was named in his billionaire grandfather Tobias Hawthorne’s will, so the Hawthorne family needs her to travel to Texas for the will reading. Avery wonders why a total stranger would name her in his will.

In Texas, a lawyer named Alisa escorts Avery and Libby to Tobias’s estate, Hawthorne House, where Avery finds Tobias’s daughters, Zara and Skye, and Skye’s sons: a laidback man in his mid-20s named Nash, businesslike 19-year-old Grayson, bad-boy 18-year-old Jameson, and zany almost-17-year-old Xander. At the will reading, Tobias’s family and Avery get letters from Tobias. Then Tobias’s lawyers reveal that Tobias left relatively small sums to his family—and the rest of his $46.2 billion to Avery. Tobias’s head of security, Oren, takes Avery and Libby to a hotel, where Alisa explains the condition on Avery’s inheritance: she must live in Hawthorne House for a year. When Libby worries that Tobias’s family will murder Avery, Alisa explains that if Avery dies, the money goes to Avery’s estate, not the Hawthornes.

The following day, Libby flies in Avery’s new jet back to Connecticut to fetch Avery’s things. When Libby returns, she has a black eye. When Alisa learns that Drake sold Avery’s story to the media, Avery infers that Libby told Drake what had happened, he demanded money, Libby told him the money was Avery’s, and he punched Libby.

Avery, Libby, Oren, and Alisa return to Hawthorne House. Inside Avery’s new rooms, which belonged to Tobias, she finds a desk with a T engraved inside a compartment. She hears a voice telling her to “pull the candlestick.” She yanks a candlestick on the mantel, and a door opens in the fireplace. Jameson pops out. He tells Avery that Tobias used to make his grandsons solve puzzles and speculates that Avery is the final “puzzle.” He gives her his letter from Tobias, which consists of a string of proverbs.

At Avery’s new school in Texas, a girl named Thea shows Avery around. Thea tells Avery that the last girl who spent a lot of time at Hawthorne House died. Contemplating Jameson’s letter, Avery realizes that its final line, “Don’t judge,” might mean Don’t judge a book by its cover. Back at Hawthorne House, she and Jameson search for a book that doesn’t match its cover. While they search, Avery asks Jameson about the dead girl Thea mentioned. Jameson, pained, replies that the girl’s name was Emily.

The next morning, Alisa tells Avery that she’ll explain to the Hawthornes that overturning Tobias’s will can only lead to a reinstatement of Tobias’s previous will, which left his family even less money. Avery asks when Tobias first made a will disinheriting his family. Alisa says it was 20 years ago, right after Tobias’s son Toby died in a fire (though Toby’s body was never found).

When Avery and Jameson resume searching Hawthorne House for a mismatched book and cover, Jameson finds Faust inside the cover for a different book. Faust contains red filter paper and a coded message: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.” Since red filter paper can uncover hidden messages in red ink, Avery infers that Tobias must have left a will printed in red ink somewhere. When she asks Alisa, Alisa agrees to arrange for her to see the “Red Will.” Later, Zara hunts Avery down, explains that she runs the Hawthorne Foundation, and grudgingly offers to show Avery the ropes. The next day, Avery examines the Red Will. When she reads it through the filter paper, the only words that remain are Tobias’s grandsons’ middle names: Westbrook, Davenport, Winchester, and Blackwood.

The next day, Avery meets Rebecca Laughlin, whose grandparents are caretakers of Hawthorne House and live in Wayback Cottage on Tobias’s estate. When Rebecca mentions that her sister died, Avery guesses correctly that Rebecca’s sister was Emily. After school, Avery goes to the Hawthorne Foundation. There Grayson meets her and admits that he “misjudged” her as a money-grubber: so far, she hasn’t spent any of her inheritance. Avery says that actually, she asked Alisa to secure housing for her homeless friend Harry. She examines the Foundation’s walls—and spots a map of Hawthorne House’s estates with a forest labeled Black Wood and a brook to the west, Westbrook.

Jameson and Avery go investigate Westbrook. As they walk, he explains that Emily, who was born with a heart defect, became a wild child after she got a life-saving transplant at 13. They come to a bridge over the brook, where they find a panel that flips to reveal an 8. For the next few days, Avery and Jameson search the Black Wood for clues. One night, someone shoots at Avery and hits a tree. Oren chases the shooter away. Later, a shaken Avery goes to wash up in the bathroom. Jameson follows her, and they kiss. Yet after Jameson excitedly suggests that they must be close to solving the puzzle if someone is shooting at them, Avery angrily insists that “not everything is a game.” After Jameson leaves, Avery follows—and runs into Rebecca, who explains that Emily dated both Grayson and Jameson, making them compete for her affections. Later, Oren tells Avery that his team found security camera footage of Grayson and Jameson separately entering the house’s armory, where Tobias kept his collection of Winchester rifles. Avery goes to the armory, where she finds a Winchester rifle with O.N.E. carved onto it—1. The next day, Avery skips school to search Hawthorne House for a Davenport desk. When she finds one, there’s a plastic keychain inside shaped like a 1.

The following day, Alisa insists on taking Avery dress shopping for a charity event she wants Avery to attend. As Oren is driving them home, a car tries to run them off the road. As the police swarm the other car, Oren receives a call. He tells Avery that the driver of the other car was Drake and, the police found a rifle in his car that matches the bullet in the tree. Later, as Avery is leaving for the charity event, Oren tells her that the police believe Drake got onto the estate through secret tunnels under the house—which someone who knew about the tunnels would have had to show him. At the charity event, she runs into Jameson. When he brings up Tobias’s puzzle, Avery asks whether Jameson just wants to use her. Jameson begs Avery to come search the Black Wood with him. After he leaves, Xander tells Avery that he’s figured out the Blackwood clue—and that he’s arranged for a helicopter for her, Jameson, and Grayson back at the Hawthorne House.

At the house, Avery hops into the helicopter with Jameson and Grayson. When they fly over the Black Wood, it looks like a 0. After landing, they discuss what 8, 1, 1, 0 could mean. Avery suggests it could be a date and rearranges the numbers until she hits 10/18—her birthday. Grayson quietly explains to Avery that Emily died on 10/18. Jameson, horrified, storms off. Afterward, Grayson tells Avery that the day Emily died, she asked Grayson to take her cliff-jumping. They completed the jumps, but while Grayson was getting towels, Emily collapsed. After her death, Tobias cornered Grayson and told him Emily wouldn’t be dead if Grayson had prioritized his brother instead of his girlfriend.

Back at Hawthorne House, Avery finds a hidden compartment that contains a purple glass octagon. She concludes that 10/18 was the next clue, not the end of the puzzle. When she shows Xander the purple octagon, he shows her a stained-glass window in the house that contains two such octagons. They follow the beams of light traveling through the window octagons to a hidden staircase down to the secret tunnels. In the tunnels they find a secret room, where a smart wall recognizes Avery’s face and parts to reveal a door with four touch-pads. The door will only unlock when all the Hawthorne grandsons touch a pad. When Xander goes to get his brothers, Rebecca appears and admits to Avery that, the night Avery was shot at, she saw Drake in the tunnels with Skye. Grayson appears, clearly having overheard, and tells Rebecca to leave. Then he asks Avery to let him “handle” his mother, swearing he’ll safeguard Avery’s life.

Xander, Nash, and Jameson appear. The brothers place their hands on the pads, and the door unlocks. Jameson starts to leave, claiming that whatever is behind the door will be a reminder from Tobias that he is responsible for Emily’s death. He reveals that the night Emily died, he followed her and Grayson cliff-jumping. Emily spotted him—and smiled, clearly thinking he regretted breaking up with her. Angrily, he started walking away. Then Emily collapsed. He thought she was faking, so he did nothing. Then she went totally still, and he fled. Tobias found out and tried to convince him to tell Grayson. He refused. Ergo, Jameson surmises now, Tobias devised the puzzle to make sure Jameson never forgot his sin. However, Xander reveals that Tobias devised the puzzle to mend his grandsons’ broken relationships, not to punish them—and that, prior to his death, he recruited Xander to help effect the plan.

Avery, Nash, Grayson, Jameson, and Xander open the door. Inside they find a puzzle box containing envelopes for the five of them. Inside Avery’s envelope is a sugar packet. Avery remembers encountering Tobias when she was a small child building castles out of sugar packets at the diner where her mother worked. Avery returns to her room, rereads the apology letter that Tobias sent her, and compares the “T.T.H.” signoff to the T in the compartment of the desk. She presses the T twice, twists it to make an H, and presses it again. A secret drawer is revealed, which holds a folder containing many surveillance photos of Avery, including photos of her with Libby and her with Harry.

The next morning, Oren reveals to Avery that Skye has abruptly moved out of Hawthorne House. Avery goes to talk to Grayson about this, and they almost have a romantic moment, but Grayson says that their relationship can’t escalate because of Jameson’s feelings for Avery. Later, Avery runs into Tobias’s ancient mother-in-law, Nan, who shows Avery a picture of Tobias’s son Toby. Avery is shocked to recognize Toby: he’s the same person as her homeless friend Harry.

Meanwhile, Xander discovers a secret message in the letter that Tobias left for him: “Find Tobias Hawthorne II.”