The Cider House Rules

The stationmaster in St. Cloud’s, an ignorant and superstitious man, has a heart attack on an unusually windy night. His body is discovered by two boys at the orphanage, Curly and David Copperfield. After Dr. Larch performs an autopsy on the body, the boys are sent to the train station to tell the assistant that his boss has died. They cross paths there with Candy and Wally, who are on their way to St. Cloud’s so that Candy can have an abortion. Candy and Wally ask for directions to St. Cloud’s, and Curly tells them; the Wallaces then give him and David Copperfield a ride to the orphanage in their white Cadillac. Curly is smitten with the couple and hopes that they will adopt him.

Ultimately, however, the Wallaces take Homer away with them instead. Homer ingratiates himself with both Candy and Wally during Candy’s abortion, and Wally invites Homer to spend a weekend at his home in Ocean View. The pretext for this visit is that Homer will collect some apple tree saplings, which he will then plant at St. Cloud’s. However, St. Cloud’s residents all understand that Homer has moved away for good and are devastated by his departure. Curly is upset because the glamorous couple picked Homer rather than him; Melony, with whom Homer has been having an intermittent sexual relationship, is upset because she is in love with Homer; Dr. Larch is upset because Homer is like a son to him.

Prior to his departure, Homer clashed with Dr. Larch on the matter of abortion. After performing an autopsy on a fetus who has been stabbed along with his mother, he decided that he could no longer perform abortions. He told this to Dr. Larch, who responded that he should at least be a witness. The fetus’s body, meanwhile, was accidentally seen by the stationmaster’s assistant, who came to the orphanage to pay his respects to the stationmaster.

After Homer leaves St. Cloud’s, the orphanage routine changes in his absence. Melony takes over his nightly reading duties, but she reads flatly and badly. Since she is now a young woman, Dr. Larch suggests to her that she also take over Homer’s duties in the hospital. However, Melony is uninterested, and eventually she runs away from the orphanage, in search of Homer.

At Ocean View, Homer learns the work routine of the orchard and gets to know the workers. Candy, Olive, and Wally teach him how to swim and drive. Candy’s lobsterman father Ray takes Homer lobstering and identities Homer as someone who is capable of learning anything. Homer explores the cider house at the orchard, where Black migrant workers stay and work during the harvest reason.  

Dr. Larch creates an alternate adult identity for Fuzzy Stone, whom only Homer knows is long deceased. He has done this in part to hold off the board of directors, who are pressuring Dr. Larch to hire younger workers; Dr. Larch fears that the board of directors ultimately wants to replace him. He also fears that the board will find out about the abortions he performs, and that no one else will be able or willing to perform this service. He writes Homer about his subterfuge and about Curly having been adopted, by a dour pharmacist couple in Boothbay Harbor.

Melony searches for Homer, knowing only that he works at an apple orchard. She stops and asks questions at an orchard called York Orchard; while leaving the orchard, she is chased down and nearly attacked by two male workers. She surprises them by turning around, attacking them, and then driving away in their truck. She drives back to York Orchard, tells the overseer what happened, and vows to go to the police if he does not hire her. He does so.

At Ocean View, Homer readies the cider house for the migrant workers. He discovers a list of house rules—the “cider house rules” of the novel’s title—tacked up by the door; Olive wrote them. While the other cider house workers take a lunch break, he goes up to the roof, which is covered with broken beer and liquor bottles. When he goes back into the house, he is nearly sexually assaulted by Grace Lynch, who is herself an abused wife. She is married to Vernon Lynch, a worker at the orchard, and had an abortion many years ago at St. Cloud’s.

Wally unwittingly rescues Homer by driving up to the cider house and stating that he needs Homer’s help. Wally’s father, who has become increasingly violent and erratic, has vandalized a local corner store. After Wally and Homer escort Mr. Worthington out of the store, Homer writes to Dr. Larch and asks him for his medical opinion on Mr. Worthington’s behavior. Dr. Larch replies that Mr. Worthington’s symptoms correspond to Alzheimer’s; Mr. Worthington then visits a local neurologist, who confirms this diagnosis. The diagnosis is a great relief to everyone, including Mr. Worthington himself. Shortly after being diagnosed, Mr. Worthington dies.

Dr. Larch continues to invent an adult Fuzzy Stone. He fakes both a college and a medical school transcript for him and fills out a survey under his name. The survey has been written by the board of directors and is meant to be given to alumni of the orphanage. Dr. Larch also pressures real alumni, including Homer, to fill out the survey and to provide positive opinions.    

Once the summer ends, and both Candy and Wally have gone back to school, Homer is asked to stay on at the orchard. He meets the Black migrant workers and becomes acquainted with them, especially with their foreman, the self-possessed Mr. Rose. At York Farms, Melony becomes acquainted with her own crew. They are threatened by her habit of reading alone in bed, and one night they bully her into reading Jane Eyre out loud to them. She does so but has to stop when a passage in the book reminds her of Homer and makes her cry.