Dominick Birdsey Timeline & Summary

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• In October of 1990, Dominick Birdsey's twin brother, Thomas, chops off his own hand and gets committed to a state mental institution.
• Dominick wants to get Thomas out, and he yells at the hospital guards; one of them kicks Dominick in his little Birdseys.
• Not everyone is that mean at the hospital, though, and Dominick is able to work with social worker Lisa Sheffer and Dr. Patel to free Thomas.
• Dr. Patel is more interested in helping Dominick, so they delve into his past—his abusive stepfather, Ray; how his Ma loved Thomas more; the beginnings of Thomas's schizophrenia, etc.
• Dominick's girlfriend, Joy, says she's pregnant, but she doesn't know that Dominick had a vasectomy after his child with his first wife, Dessa, died.
• While painting a house for a client, the client, Henry Rood, shoots himself while Dominick watches. Dominick falls off the house in shock, and ends up in the hospital.
• His hospital roommate's fiancé is Nedra Frank, a woman Dominick paid years ago to translate his grandfather's memoirs from Italian, but then disappeared. She comes back and gives Dominick the manuscript.
• Dr. Patel urges Dominick to learn about his past, so he reads the whole darn thing.
• He tells Joy about the vasectomy, and she leaves him, admitting she had an affair.
• Dominick uses his injury, and revelations of an AIDS epidemic at the hospital, to blackmail the director and get Thomas freed.
• Thomas is put in a halfway house, but escapes that night and kills himself.
• After the funeral, Dominick reunites with his ex-wife, Dessa, and when his stepfather, Ray, gets diabetes and his leg is amputated, Dominick forgives him for being a jerk and takes care of him.
• Finally, Dominick learns who is real father is: a Wequonnoc Indian, and Dominick inherits millions of dollars from the tribe.