Only the Beautiful

The narrative returns to the present moment. Helen finds the orphanage easily and speaks to a woman who has her wait for the director of the house. Another woman introduces herself as Mrs. Sommers and assures Helen that all their charges are issued to good homes. Helen asks specifically about a little girl who would have been delivered from the institution in Sonoma in the summer of 1939. The director is taken aback upon realizing precisely who Helen is talking about and tells her, “Your niece wasn’t adopted. She is here” (304).

The narrative shifts back in time to Helen’s experiences in Austria. Grieving over Brigitta’s death, Helen wonders if the girl died of loneliness or fear, since she was kept all alone in a strange place after being abducted from her school. The other Maier children in the family ask many questions, and when Brigitta’s remains are delivered later in the week, all they receive is a small wooden box; Brigitta has been cremated. At the funeral Mass, Helen encounters Brigitta’s schoolmaster, Emilie Pichler, who asks Helen to come visit her at the school as soon as possible.

Back at the Maier household, Johannes tells Helen that because the family will leave their home for a time, they no longer need her services. Suspicious of the circumstances surrounding Brigitta’s death, Helen begs to know if pneumonia was the true cause. Johannes avoids the question, and Helen goes away frustrated. Helen inquires into other nanny positions in the country but puts her job search aside to visit Emilie Pichler. She discovers that Brigitta’s school is being shut down, but Emilie tells her that she has become aware of a horrific scheme to destroy children with disabilities. She states, “The führer has come up with a scheme to […] ease the burden of those whose quality of life has been impacted by age, illness, or disability […] They are killing disabled people in the name of mercy” (316). Helen can’t believe her ears, but she knows that Emilie is telling the truth.

Emilie reveals that there is a little boy in the neighborhood that is likely next on the list, and his family wants to find some way to save him. Emilie has devised a scheme whereby someone can chaperone the boy into Switzerland, where her sister lives as a Cistercian nun in a convent. Emilie asks if Helen would be willing to do this, and Helen agrees.

The narrative returns to the present moment. Overjoyed at the news that Amaryllis is present, Helen jumps at the opportunity to adopt her. The director tells her that she will be required to fill out extensive paperwork, and the decision will ultimately be decided by a judge. The director retrieves Amaryllis and lets her know that she has a visitor. Helen and Amaryllis finally meet, and Helen introduces herself, explaining the situation as best she can. Amaryllis is reserved and shy, but Helen does her best to put the girl at ease. Helen tells her as much as she knows about Rosie. She also tells Amaryllis that she wants to adopt her and promises to do everything in her power to bring her home soon.

Helen and the boy she is shepherding to Switzerland—a little boy named Wilhelm, who is deaf—ride the train through Austria toward the Swiss border. When they arrive, Helen is wracked with nerves as they wait to cross the border. She and Emilie devised an ingenious scheme to avoid questioning; they have arranged for Wilhelm to stay in Switzerland under the ruse of visiting a distant relative. The German official at the border questions them briefly but soon stamps their passports and waves them along.

However, the Swiss guard questions them and is told to bring them into a private office for further investigation. The presiding officer, Franz, suspects Helen’s true intentions, but Helen has an intuition that she can trust him and reveals their whole scheme. The officer is sympathetic but warns her sternly, saying, “Listen. I will help you now, but you can’t do this again. You’re going to get yourself arrested and deported, maybe even jailed for smuggling. Don’t do this again” (337). They speak about a better way to transport more children across the border if Helen gets the chance to do so again, and the officer gives Helen his phone number in case she needs his assistance in the future.

The narrative returns to the present moment. Helen returns from visiting Amaryllis in the orphanage and excitedly tells George and Lila of her plans to adopt the girl. They immediately beg her to stay with them permanently, offering Helen and Amaryllis their very own rooms. Helen finds a job at a local shop, and soon, the county sends out an investigator to determine if Helen and her circumstances would be a good fit for Amaryllis. Convinced of Helen’s competence and impressed by the community support that Amaryllis will receive in her care, the court grants Helen the legal guardianship of the girl.

Amaryllis comes home with Helen, but Helen assures her that as much as she will love and care for her, she will never try to replace her mother. She tells the girl, “Legally I am responsible for you as a parent, and I already love you as a mother would […] but I know you still love the mother you never knew. And I understand that” (346). Amaryllis slowly adjusts to her new life, but she soon finds herself at home with Helen and the Petraki family even though Helen continues to have no success in locating Rosie.

The narrative shifts back in time to Helen’s experiences in Europe. It is now 1947: seven years after she smuggled Wilhelm across the Swiss border. Helen is now living in Lucerne, Switzerland, after having worked to resist the Austrian government’s eugenics practices for the entirety of the war. She ultimately rescued “nearly a dozen disabled children” (351) over the years. Helen has heard nothing from the Maier family in over two years, but she now decides to return trip to Vienna to seek out the family. She arrives at their old home in Vienna and finds only Johannes, who looks like a shell of his former self.

Johannes tells Helen that the family wants nothing to do with him; they are now living in Salzburg. He has spent time as a prisoner of war and was only released a few months before her visit. When Helen questions him once more about Brigitta, he admits that she did not die of pneumonia. He states, “I’m the one who asked—begged and bribed—for Brigitta to be given the injection that killed her” (363). When asked how he could have done such a thing, Johannes tells Helen that the only alternative was for her to become the subject of cruel experiments, so he tried to save her from a fate worse than death. Helen is devastated to learn this and wonders what more could have been done to stop such horrific deeds.

The narrative returns to the present moment. It is now five years after Helen first adopted Amaryllis. One day, Helen receives an invitation to speak at a university in New York. Amaryllis expresses her excitement and pride in her aunt, and Helen reflects on her actions over the past five years, which led to her recent endeavors to raise country-wide awareness of the eugenics movement that has made its way from Hitler’s Germany all the way to America’s west coast. She began this work by speaking to small church groups and school gatherings, and by this point, she has completed hundreds of speaking engagements. She knows that this latest invitation is proof that her message is gaining traction.

Helen invites Amaryllis to come with her. She also decides that the time has finally come to tell Amaryllis about the circumstances of her birth. Helen also tells Amaryllis about Rosie’s experience with synesthesia. She explains that Rosie was improperly committed to an institution that harmed her and sterilized her. As Helen explains, “This is why I speak to people about what I experienced in the war. […] I want to change what is happening here in California. What was done to your mother is still happening here” (371). Amaryllis thanks Helen and tells her that she is proud of what she is doing. Shortly afterwards, Helen receives an invitation to write a book about her experience, and she realizes that her work is supremely important, for she is fighting for what she believes.

Four years later, Helen is attending a book-signing event in Los Angeles to celebrate the publication of her memoir, which narrates her travels and experiences in Europe and details the horrors of the eugenics ideology that she encountered during the war years. As the line of readers fades away, only one couple remains, standing at the back of the store. As they approach the table, Helen immediately recognizes Amaryllis’s features in the woman’s face and knows without a doubt that she is looking at Rosie Maras. They embrace, and Helen explains that she tried to find Rosie years ago. Rosie explains that she goes by Anne now.

Anne tells her story, outlining all the details that Helen never discovered: what happened after she left the home, how she got married, and where she has been living. When Anne finishes, Helen takes her aside and gives her the most important news: that she has adopted Amaryllis, who is right here in the city. Helen, Anne, and her husband all drive to Helen’s hotel, and she breaks the news to Amaryllis that she has found her mother. Excited and nervous, Amaryllis comes to the hotel lobby and finally meets the mother she has always longed to know.