The Cloisters

Ann receives a parcel from her mother filled with her father’s things. She goes through it and discovers several pages of handwritten notes from his studies. Although he was a janitor, he often rescued pages from wastebins at the college and studied them with Ann. As she looks through them, Ann feels a well of panic rising. The feeling leads her to memories of her father’s memorial: Her mother began to cry, and Ann walked through a doorway without realizing it was glass. She was severely injured in the accident.

Ann discovers a paper written by Lingraf, which is a transcription of a historical list of items including tarot cards. Other pages her father translated himself talk about tarot cards, which were used for both divination and games. One of Lingraf’s pages uses an unfamiliar language that Ann deduces is a code. She searches for more clues in the pages, but finds only a portion of a watermark.

Ann finds the process overwhelming and goes outside. Her walk leads her to a farmer’s market, and she discovers Leo at one of the stalls. He’s nervous and asks if she was sent to find him. He admits that he’s been growing herbs in the Cloisters’ gardens to sell, some of them poisonous.

Ann spends the afternoon helping Leo at his stall. On their way out, Leo flirts with her until he sees a police officer nearby. He makes them leave quickly because he doesn’t have a trading license. He sends Ann home in a taxi while he runs away.

Patrick grows increasingly tense, and Rachel announces that she and Ann are being sent on an errand. They go to see an antiques dealer named Stephen Ketch, who specializes in rare items. Ann examines the items with curiosity while Stephen finds Patrick’s order for Rachel. She tries on several rings, one of which costs $25,000. It’s engraved with an old French inscription that means “loyalty without fear” (95). 

Stephen leads her into a hidden room with items gained illegally. Rachel reveals Patrick’s purchase: an incomplete set of tarot cards. Rachel discovers a pair of matching silver rings and buys them for herself and Ann. Although the rings are the same size, they fit both women. On their way back, Rachel admits that Patrick doesn’t know Ann came along. Inspired by her confidence, Ann tells her about the notes she discovered in her father’s things. Rachel encourages her to withhold the information from Patrick.

Ann doesn’t go outside, to avoid the heat, but also to avoid Leo. She is caught between her attraction to him and her devotion to her job. Moira wrangles Rachel and Ann into helping with a tour group. The tourists are more curious about the private working spaces of the museum than the artwork. Rachel leads them into the museum storage, where several thousand artifacts are being held until needed. The tourists also visit the security room and inquire about video surveillance; Rachel explains that some of the working areas, such as the offices and library, are not monitored. Leo arrives and Rachel introduces him to the group. He tells them a bit about the poisons they grow, such as belladonna and mandrake. After the tour, Rachel confronts Ann about her attraction to Leo. Ann is uncertain about what she should do.

Ann stays late, working with her research. She takes her work into the garden. When she returns to the library, she finds Patrick and Rachel conducting a tarot reading by candlelight. Ann feels excluded, and Patrick expresses remorse for not inviting her along. She joins them at the table and Patrick guides her in a reading. She works to interpret the cards’ message, and Patrick pushes her to try harder. Rachel admits she avoids divination, saying she doesn’t want to know what the future holds. Patrick becomes frustrated and storms away.

Leo invites Ann to come watch his band play. Ann reflects on the disrepair of her apartment, and how her work is beginning to take over her life. In the library, Patrick is frustrated because Aruna thinks his new deck of tarot cards is a reproduction. Rachel agrees, saying the illustrations are unrefined and the material too thick for the time period. Ann and Rachel make plans to pick up the deck’s remaining cards, which had to come from another source, from Stephen.

In the evening, Ann meets Leo and walks toward his gig. The neighborhood is noisy and chaotic. They stop at a bar on the way and talk about Leo’s work and aspirations. He tells Ann that in addition to playing bass and gardening, he’s also an aspiring playwright. Their conversation turns to Rachel, but Leo deflects Ann’s questions. He kisses her and they go to the show.

Afterwards they go to one of the musicians’ homes. Leo finds a tarot deck, and Ann draws the Lovers card. She spends the night with Leo at his apartment. When she wakes, she spots a pair of rare fortune telling dice on Leo’s bookshelf.

Ann’s work at the Cloisters distracts her from Leo, and Patrick becomes increasingly frantic in his search for new material. When he goes to visit Stephen, he brings Ann along and leaves Rachel behind. On the way, Patrick tries to connect with Ann over her growing belief in the cards. Ann feels her grip on reality beginning to blur.

At the antique shop, Stephen gives Patrick an envelope of cards, which Patrick passes to Ann while he and Stephen explore more items. Ann discreetly looks at the cards inside and finds three additions. While handling one of the cards, she discovers that it’s made of two layers—a false front pasted onto an older card. The older card has a caption in an unknown language. She hides the card in her bag, and she and Patrick leave the shop.

Back at the Cloisters, Rachel probes Ann about the visit, but Ann keeps her discovery to herself. Rachel invites her to spend a weekend away at her family home in Long Lake. When the weekend arrives, the women travel by car, helicopter, and floatplane to reach their destination. Rachel’s home is lavish and extravagant. Ann meets Rachel’s caretaker, Margaret, and they settle in.

Ann adjusts to the new space. Rachel confesses that her mother once had a tea reading done, and that the fortune teller wouldn’t admit what she saw in her future. She also admits that her parents died in this family home three years before. Ann tells Rachel about her father.

Afterwards, Ann goes running in the woods outside and thinks about the stolen tarot card. She feels as though an external force pushed her to take the card. It reminds her of how she felt when she received the phone call about her father’s death. As night falls, she becomes lost in the woods and decides to sit down and wait for more light.

Rachel finds her and leads her back. After her rescue, Ann shows Rachel the tarot card. Ann deduces that the caption on the card matches the coded language in Lingraf’s notes. Together she and Rachel use the card as a key to translate the writing, which is a letter about a set of ancient tarot cards that proves they were used in fortune telling.

Ann delights in having a secret she can share with Rachel, knowing that her discovery has taken them one step further in their research. She meets Margaret in the kitchen as she’s searching for lunch, and Margaret tells her the story behind Rachel’s parents’ deaths. The three of them went sailing, but the boat capsized; Rachel was the only survivor. Ann remembers Rachel’s confidence when they stole the sailboat together. When she meets Rachel later, she asks her about the tragedy. They bond over their parents’ deaths and the way they subverted their parents’ expectations. Their mothers both didn’t want daughters in academia. When Rachel and Ann return to New York, Rachel invites Ann to move in with her.