The Setup
Every detail is from the book text, with chapter numbers so you can check me. If you want a spoiler free overview, watch the show versus book video instead.
The book follows two hockey stars for about nine years. Shane Hollander plays for the Montreal Voyageurs, and Ilya Rozanov plays for the Boston Bears. In public they are archrivals. In secret, they are something else.
Prologue
The Prologue opens in October twenty sixteen, in the middle of the story. Montreal loses at home to Boston, four to one, and Ilya scores twice. Shane is furious and humiliated.
An hour later, he drives to a condo in Montreal that he owns and nobody knows about. About forty minutes later, Ilya knocks on the door. They have been doing this for over six years. Shane tells himself he will end it, and he knows he won’t. Then the book jumps back to the beginning.
Chapters One to Three
Chapter One is December two thousand eight, at the World Juniors in Regina. Ilya is seventeen, and he is determined to destroy the Canadian phenom he has never met. Shane, also seventeen, watches him practice. Russia wins gold, and Shane takes the silver medal.
Chapter Two is the NHL draft in June two thousand nine. Ilya is picked first, by Boston, and Shane second, by Montreal. That night they run into each other in a hotel gym, and Shane ends his night thinking about Ilya. Chapter Three is the next World Juniors, in Ottawa, Shane’s hometown, where Ilya spends New Year’s Eve wanting to find him.
Chapters Four to Eight
In Chapter Four, in July twenty ten, the equipment company CCM films an ad campaign with both of them in Toronto. Later that night, they end up together in a hotel room, and they pretend afterward that it was nothing.
In Chapter Five, Shane is a man of routine, and he sees Ilya on television promising fifty goals. In Chapter Six, at the All-Star weekend in Nashville, they hook up again, and Ilya saves his number in Shane’s phone as Lily. In Chapter Seven, Shane books a hotel room in Montreal.
In Chapter Eight, at the NHL Awards in Las Vegas, the two rookies have scored exactly the same number of goals. After the reception, Ilya kisses Shane, and Shane stops it, because anyone could see.
Chapters Nine to Eleven
Chapter Nine is December twenty thirteen. On a plane, Ilya notices that a teammate, Ryan Price, is a nervous flier. The next night in Montreal, they meet again. Chapter Ten is the Sochi Olympics, where Russia is knocked out early, and Shane finds Ilya upset and alone.
In Chapter Eleven, in June twenty fourteen, the league has them present an award together in Las Vegas. Ilya has just won the Cup with Boston. They end up in his suite, and Shane realizes afterward that they didn’t even kiss, and he regrets it.
Chapters Twelve and Thirteen
Chapter Twelve jumps to October twenty sixteen. In Philadelphia, Ilya enjoys being booed. At the Montreal Biodome, Shane helps Hayden with his children. In Washington, Ilya sees Shane on television at his lakefront cottage.
In Chapter Thirteen, in Boston, their hookups now happen at Ilya’s penthouse. He makes Shane a tuna melt. Shane leaves in a panic because he wants to stay, and Hayden teases him about being in love.
Chapters Fourteen and Fifteen
In Chapter Fourteen, J.J. drags Shane to a party at a Montreal restaurant, and Shane meets the movie star Rose Landry. The press decides they are a couple, and Ilya sulks in a hotel room. At a club, Ilya sees Shane with Rose.
In Chapter Fifteen, Rose tells Shane that a young actor, Miles, is gay and in love with him, and Shane realizes Rose has guessed. They agree to be friends. Meanwhile, Ilya sees Svetlana in Boston and thinks about Shane.
Chapters Sixteen to Eighteen
In Chapter Sixteen, at the All-Star Game in Tampa Bay, they are on the same team for the first time. On a dark beach, Ilya hooks his thumb around Shane’s, and Shane asks to talk somewhere private.
In Chapter Seventeen, Shane says he thinks he is gay. Ilya says he can’t be, because his father and brother are police officers in Russia, and his father is sick. In Chapter Eighteen, they start texting about hockey gossip, and Ilya asks Shane to come over on a game day.
Chapters Nineteen and Twenty
In Chapter Nineteen, Ilya doesn’t fly with his team, and Shane learns his father has died. Ilya calls from Moscow. Shane asks him to say everything he feels in Russian, and Ilya does. He slips in that he is in love with Shane, in a language Shane can’t follow.
In Chapter Twenty, after the funeral, Ilya gives his Moscow condo to his brother, and they have their first video call. Shane wears glasses. When it ends, Ilya decides he has to end this before it hurts them both.
Chapters Twenty-One and Twenty-Two
In Chapter Twenty-One, in April, Shane is knocked out by Ilya’s teammate Cliff Marlow, and Ilya visits him in hospital. Shane invites him to the cottage, and Ilya says maybe.
In Chapter Twenty-Two, Shane recovers in Ottawa and tells his mother that Rose is only a friend. In June, Scott Hunter wins the Cup and kisses a man on live television. Ilya calls Shane and says he is coming to the cottage.
Chapters Twenty-Three to Twenty-Five
In Chapter Twenty-Three, in July, Shane picks Ilya up in Ottawa, and they drive to the cottage. In Chapter Twenty-Four, Ilya tells Shane at a campfire that his mother died when he was twelve.
In Chapter Twenty-Five, they play video games, they say I love you for the first time, and Shane sketches a plan with a charity.
Chapters Twenty-Six and Twenty-Seven
In Chapter Twenty-Six, Ilya pushes Shane off the dock, and Shane’s father catches them kissing. They go to his parents’ cottage and tell them. His mother has suspected that Shane is gay, and she and his father accept them.
In Chapter Twenty-Seven, they go back to the cottage. Ilya calls it home, and they plan Ilya’s move to Ottawa and the charity.
Epilogue and Bonus
The Epilogue jumps sixteen months. Ilya plays for Ottawa, and Hayden has figured it out. They announce the Irina Foundation, which Ilya names for his mother, and they remain a secret as a couple.
The bonus story, three weeks earlier, is a dinner with Hayden and his wife Jackie, ending with Shane and Ilya ready for the press conference.
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