SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for The perfect couple.

Not everything is as it seems in Netflix’s wealthy Winbury family The perfect couple.

Their home on Nantucket is about the only idyllic thing about them, as viewers will discover in the six episodes of the series, which was directed by Susanne Bier and adapted by Jenna Lamia from the novel by Elin Hilderbrand. Several important changes – big and small – take the series in a different direction than Hilderbrand’s book.

For more information on name changes, entirely new characters, and other plot points between the series and the book, see below:

Name changes

Eve Hewson’s bride-to-be, Amelia Sacks in the series, is called Celeste Otis in the books. Isabelle Adjani’s French family friend Isabel Nallet also has a different name in the novel – Featherleigh Dale, and she is from London in the book, not France. Gosia, the Winburys’ housekeeper, is called Elida. Shooter Dival is also called Shooter Uxley in the book, and “Shooter” is just his nickname.

The third Winbury brother

Will Winbury (Sam Nivola) does not appear in Hilderbrand’s book. While there are three Winbury brothers in the series, there are only two in the novel – Thomas and Benji. Will’s storyline involves Chloe Carter (Mia Isaac) more in the series. In the book, she was still catering for the rehearsal dinner and caused glass to break. She also knew that Merritt was pregnant with Tag’s baby.

Detective Nikki Henry (Donna Lynne Champlin)

Donna Lynne Champlin’s no-nonsense detective was originally Nicholas Diamantopoulos, aka the Greek, in Hilderbrand’s novel. In the book, Nick tries to “catch more flies with honey,” as Chief Dan Carter says in the show, while Nikki Henry disregards the Winbury family’s demands.

The dynamic of Benji and Amelia

Amelia is still distant and very different from Greer Garrison-Winbury (Nicole Kidman) in the series, but she doesn’t start stuttering when she’s stressed like her book counterpart, Celeste. Her future husband, Benji (Billy Howle), has a few extra wrinkles that make him a little different on screen.

First of all, he likes to paint. He also gets caught with photos of Merritt, but only because she asked him to paint her. These details make Benji a little more shady on the show.

The dynamic between Amelia and Shooter is also a bit different in the series, as Benji walks in on them kissing, but in the book their affair remains a secret until the wedding.

Merrits Jewelry by Day

In Hilderbrand’s book, Tag bought Merritt a ring, but in the show it was a very expensive bracelet. It wasn’t a wedding band, but a thumb ring. There was even more confusion because the jeweler in the book knew the ring was for a pregnant woman, which Greer confused with Abby (Dakota Fanning in the show). Greer was also thinking of wedding bands for Celeste and Benji.

In the show, the jeweler asks directly for a bracelet because she sees Greer isn’t wearing one, and Greer pretends to understand the situation. Then she finds the receipt in Tag’s desk drawer.

Broderick Graham

Broderick Graha (Tommy Flanagan) does not appear in the book. In the series, he is not only Greer’s long-lost brother, but also connected to an important part of her past that she had kept secret from her children until the finale. His involvement in the murder case involving Shooter’s money also does not appear in the book.

The book party

Greer is working on a new novel based on Hilderbrand’s work, but she doesn’t throw a chaotic launch party at which her husband begins to destroy her perfect image of her.

Greer’s past

Greer’s true identity, revealed in the series finale, is not part of the book. In the series, she reveals that she used to work as a high-profile escort and that her brother Broderick organized the clientele. Tag was one of her clients, paying for her services three times before quitting.

The killer combination and the motive

The whodunnit aspect of the story leads to a different combination of events than in Hilderbrand’s book.

In the book, Abby put one of Greer’s sleeping pills in a drink she thought was intended for Featherliegh (Isabel’s counterpart in the series), but the drink was served to Merritt instead. Merritt actually went on a kayaking trip with Tag in the book, but her drowning was an accident because she drifted into the water trying to retrieve the ring that Tag had bought her and which she had thrown into the ocean out of frustration. The sleeping pill took effect when she waded into the ocean, and she drowned trying to retrieve the ring.

In the series, Thomas still catalyzes events with his confession to the police, as in the book, but Dakota Fanning’s Abby intentionally drugs Merritt. She crushes a pill she took from Amelia’s (Celeste) mother’s secret euthanasia stash because Karen Otis/Sacks (Dendrie Taylor) has cancer in both stories. Thomas plays prescription roulette in the series, taking random pills from people and popping them at random. Abby took a pentobarbitol pill that Thomas thought was Oxycontin. Abby puts the pill in a glass of orange juice and waits for it to take effect before suffocating and killing Merritt underwater.