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Emily Beam writes her first poem at Amherst School for girls. It is titled "Maze"
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Emily has her first day of school at ASG and learns the ropes from her roommate K.T. We also learn of Paul's suicide but we do not yet know the reason behind it
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Emily goes to the school library for a moment of solitude and discovers a book of Emily Dickinson's poetry. This is the event that will propell Emily forward in her journey of writing poems.
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Madame Colche finds Emily's poems that she had thrown away. She returns them to Emily and urgers her to enter her writing into a poetry contest sponsered by The Emily Dickinson Society
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Emily discovers the Emily Dickinson House for the first time when trying to return the poetry contest paper. Also at this time we learn that Paul has killed himself in her old school's library after first pointing the gun at her.
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Emily returns to the Emily Dickinson House and has a slightly paranormal experience in which she feels the energy of the late Emily and has a poetic conversion with her in her mind.
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Through Emily's flashback we discover that she was pregnant with Paul's child and was considering abortion before he killed himself
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Emily awakes in the middle of the night and leaves campus to go to find Emily Dickinson's grave. There she thinks of Paul and the night of when she told Paul she was getting an abortion. She gets in trouble by the school and loses her off-campus privileges
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Amber, the quirky artist, shows Emily the old long white dress that she found in the garden of the Emily Dickinson House. Emily is fascinated, yet at a complete loss of what to do to get it back where it belongs.
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Emily leaves campus and goes to the Emily Beam House, acting if she is just participating in the self-guided tour. She hides out until everyone has left so she can sneak the dress back to where it belongs in Emily D's bedroom. It is here where Emily really gives into her emotions and lets herself cry out all of the pain.
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Emily sits in Emily Dickinson's bedroom and has a conversation with the "silence." It is very strongly implied that the "silence" is actually Emily Dickison's spirit engaging in a spiritual like experience with Emily once again. It is at this moment that Emily realizes it's time to begin the process of moving on from her past.
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Yet another symbol of Emily's progression to moving forward, she finally speaks with Paul's younger sister Carey on the phone. Carey assures Emily that no one is to blame for Paul's death giving Emily some final closure.
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Emily recieves a note from the other girls at ASG, stating that her very personal poem "Mother Once Removed" has been entered into the Emily Dickinson Poetry Contest. They entered it to spite her, but Emily instead throws back in their faces, thanking them and accepting her very talented ability of writing.
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With her sneaking out once again, Emily is given her punishment, expecting to be expelled from ASG. Instead she is just on campus house arrest and will be staying for her senior year. Relieved, she goes to the library feeling accomplished and strong. She realizes that she has made it through winter and she will blossom in spring.
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Emily types up all of her poems she's written over the past three months and compiles them into a poetry book of her own. She calls the book "Clouds" based on the opening poem. She leaves out the poem about her abortion because she now understands that it does not define who she is, was, or will be.
