True Colors

True Colors (2009) is a novel penned by award-winning and bestselling American author Kristin Hannah. The book follows the lives of three sisters as they cope with a crime that tests their loyalties to each other. It explores themes of The Bonds of Sisterhood and Family Loyalty, The Effect of Insecurities on Personal Relationships, and The Enduring Power of Love. Hannah’s other works include The Nightingale (2015), which was named a Best Book of the Year by Amazon, iTunes, Buzzfeed, The Wall Street Journal, and The Week, and Firefly Lane (2008), which was adapted into a Netflix series.

This guide is based on the 2019 Pan Macmillan Kindle edition.

Content Warning: This book contains mentions and instances of addiction, racism, abuse, and sexual violence. It also includes biased portrayals of Indigenous American people.

Plot Summary

In 1979, sisters Winona, Aurora, and Vivi Ann Grey lose their mother to cancer. Their father, Henry, ignores Winona’s request that she take charge of their mother’s horse. Instead, he gives it to Vivi Ann, who is the youngest. This engenders Winona’s lifelong jealousy toward Vivi Ann.

In 1992, the Grey sisters are adults who continue to live in Oyster Shores, the town founded by their ancestors. Vivi Ann and Henry live on and manage Water’s Edge, the family ranch, which is in financial trouble. Winona, now a successful lawyer, suggests Henry sell part of the ranch, but he is furious at this suggestion. Instead, he agrees to Vivi Ann’s idea of holding paid equestrian events at the ranch, even though it requires a bigger investment upfront.

The Greys’ neighbor and Winona’s childhood best friend and secret crush, Luke Connelly, returns to town. He seeks Winona out for legal advice, and the two rekindle their friendship; however, Luke meets and immediately falls for Vivi Ann, and the two begin dating. Despite Aurora’s advice, Winona refuses to tell Vivi Ann about her feelings for Luke and silently harbors resentment toward her sister. Luke eventually proposes to Vivi Ann, but she tells him she is not sure about marriage yet; he promises to wait for her.

On Henry’s instruction, Winona hires a new ranch hand, Dallas Raintree. Before Vivi Ann meets him on the ranch, he runs into her at the local tavern and flirts with her, kissing her in full view of the crowd. Winona tells Henry and Luke, the former of whom is furious with Vivi Ann. To Winona’s dismay, Vivi Ann accepts Luke’s proposal to defuse the situation, and both Luke and Henry are thrilled.

Despite accepting Luke’s proposal, Vivi Ann cannot ignore the strong attraction she feels to Dallas, and the two begin a secret affair. Vivi Ann realizes she is in love with Dallas and confesses her feelings to him. Winona, who has suspected for a while that Vivi Ann doesn’t actually love Luke, discovers her affair with Dallas. Angry and bitter, she tells Luke and Henry, and Luke beats up Dallas. Henry warns Vivi Ann not to disgrace him any further. However, the next morning, Vivi Ann meets Dallas at the hospital and asks him to marry her.

The couple have a courthouse wedding before spending a few days on honeymoon. When they eventually return home, Henry begrudgingly accepts their marriage. A heartbroken Luke distances himself from Winona and eventually leaves town altogether.

Over the course of their relationship, Vivi Ann learns about Dallas’s past. He was physically abused by his father, who also shot and killed Dallas’s mother. Dallas has a hard time controlling his temper, and while he never hurts Vivi Ann, he has a violent past. He settles into domestic life with Vivi Ann’s love, and the couple have a son whom they name Noah.

When Noah is two, Dallas falls ill on Christmas Eve and stays home while Vivi Ann and Noah join the rest of the Greys for dinner. That night, a local woman named Cat Morgan is shot and murdered in her house. The police question Dallas, who was seen frequenting her house. Dallas, who was friends with Cat and gave her his old gun, is sure the police will eventually arrest him. When they discover his prints on the weapon, Dallas is charged with murder. He is convicted after Myrtle Michaelin, who runs the local ice cream shop, claims she saw him leave Cat’s house that night.

Vivi Ann is distraught and spends years having Dallas’s lawyer file appeals and motions to overturn the conviction. She falls out with Winona, who refused to take Dallas’s case because she believed he was guilty. Vivi Ann becomes increasingly dependent on pills and alcohol. Meanwhile, Dallas begins to lose hope and stops agreeing to Vivi Ann’s prison visits; he eventually sends divorce papers. When a barely conscious Vivi Ann gets into an accident while driving Noah to a birthday party, she decides to turn things around and turns to Winona for help.

In 2007, Vivi Ann gets called into Noah’s school, as he has been fighting, acting out, and performing poorly. Noah’s principal gives him a final chance on his teacher, Mrs. Ivers’s, request. Mrs. Ivers gives Noah a journal to write in over the summer, his graduation to high school contingent on completing the journal. Noah begins to pour his heart into writing.

Desperate to keep her increasingly angry and frustrated teenage son out of trouble, Vivi Ann requests that Winona employ Noah over the summer to help clean her beach house. While working at Winona’s, Noah and Winona befriend her new neighbors: a divorced man named Mark and his teenage daughter, Cissy. Winona and Mark start dating, as do Noah and Cissy, but in secret. Winona discovers that Mark is Myrtle’s son, but Vivi Ann gives Winona her blessing anyway.

Noah opens up to Cissy about all his questions about his father, and the teenagers hatch a plan to visit Dallas in prison. They are not let in because they are underage, and they return home to discover they have been found out. A furious Mark forbids Noah from seeing Cissy ever again. However, when school begins, Cissy meets Noah at school and reassures him she still loves him. She also gives him a magazine with an article about how DNA testing is being used to exonerate the wrongfully accused.

Noah requests that Winona help him petition the court for a DNA test. Although Winona still believes Dallas is guilty, she looks through the case for Noah’s sake and discovers a discrepancy: Myrtle described a man with a tattoo on his right arm, but Dallas’s tattoo is on his left bicep. Winona meets with Dallas and convinces him to submit to a DNA test for Noah’s sake. The DNA is not a match with Dallas, and Winona requests a retrial. However, the prosecution argues that Dallas possibly had an accomplice, and the judge refuses to grant a retrial. The townspeople are angry with Winona for defending Dallas, and many start avoiding her. Mark breaks things off with her, as his mother is upset at being painted as a liar. Vivi Ann and Noah are heartbroken and begin to come to terms with the fact that Dallas may never leave prison.

Winona receives a surprise: Luke returns to town, and the two reconnect once more. Meanwhile, she continues to work on the case and discovers that the DNA sample matches a man who was convicted of rape years after Cat’s murder; he is also a match for a previously unidentified fingerprint on the murder weapon. Armed with this new evidence, Winona convinces the prosecution to file a joint motion to overturn the conviction, and Dallas is finally freed.

Winona takes Noah to meet Dallas when he is released, and he surprises Vivi Ann at the ranch later that night. The same night, Luke asks Winona if she is willing to give him a second chance, and she joyously agrees. Henry, who believes Dallas will continue to bring trouble, refuses to welcome him back. However, Winona and Aurora stand up to him and refuse to bow to his instructions. The three sisters, Noah, and Dallas gratefully reunite.

After Dallas is freed, the rest of the town eventually comes around too. Myrtle, Mark, and Cissy visit the ranch, and Myrtle apologizes to Dallas for her mistake. Cissy and Noah reunite, and he finally feels happy and content at having both Cissy and Dallas in his life.