Eventually, Tara and her mother take up email correspondence. Her sister, Audrey, learned about Shawn's behavior, but their mother did not believe her. She occasionally returns to Idaho where she learns that Shawn is still abusing Emily. She takes steps to be part of the world, including getting immunized for vaccinations her family rejected. In Part three, Westover writes about her life in Cambridge and completing her PhD. She also makes a temporary truce with her father, after the two had a falling out over how she spoke about her past to local news outlets as well as her decision to attend school in England.

Westover applies for and wins the Gates Scholarship. Both of her professors encourage her to attend graduate school. After arriving at King's College, Tara is assigned to work with Professor Jonathan Steinberg. Her professor encourages her to apply for the study abroad program at the University of Cambridge. Interested in history and politics, Westover confides to one of her professors about her family. After Shawn marries Emily, a young woman he was dating, Tara worries about Emily who previously expressed fear of Shawn. She cuts ties with him, but reconnects after he expresses interest in her life at school. Westover realizes that she no longer feels at home in Idaho, and worries that her father may have bipolar disorder. She also questions the abuse she endured from her father and Shawn, which results in her breaking off her relationship with Charles. Later, Tara also reconnects with Charles, but feels like she cannot act romantically towards him because of her conservative upbringing. She describes the stress she felt from the pressure of having to maintain her grades in order to keep her scholarship, as well as the issues she runs into due to her alienation from the outside world and lack of formal schooling. She received financial awards that allowed her to attend Cambridge. Part two covers Westover's studies at BYU and King's College, Cambridge. When Shawn has a serious motorcycle accident, she takes him to the hospital. She and Shawn became close again after he stood up to their father on her behalf. Westover was later admitted to BYU and given a scholarship. Another of Tara's brothers, Tyler, learned of the abuse and encouraged her to leave home and take the ACT to be able to apply to Brigham Young University. However, Shawn started physically abusing her after she became close to Charles, a boy she met while performing in theater. Tara's estranged brother Shawn helped her and the two initially grew closer. When Tara suffers a neck injury from a car accident, her father refused to take her to the hospital for treatment. Gene becomes depressed when his prophecies about the Y2K apocalypse did not occur. Tara's attempts to attend school or seek other normality in her life were denied by her father.

Westover's mother undertook most of the children's loose homeschooling and her father taught the children the 'rhythms of the mountain'. Her father was paranoid about hospitals, the public school system, and the government, due in part to the 1992 events of Ruby Ridge. Her parents, Gene and Faye Westover ( pseudonyms) lived in isolation. The first part describes Westover's life beginning on Buck's Peak, a mountain located in rural Idaho, until her acceptance into Brigham Young University (BYU). ( April 2020) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message) Please help improve it by removing unnecessary details and making it more concise. This article's plot summary may be too long or excessively detailed.

Educated a memoir