After having breakfast with her brother, August plans to take the subway to her father's apartment... why does she change her mind?

On the subway ride back to clean her father's apartment, August saw Sylvia, a woman she was close friends with as a child. Their unexpected meeting threw her into a panic, and she left the train long before her stop. Seeing Sylvia brought back memories of her girlhood, which are revealed to the reader when the novel flashes back to the summer of 1973, when August was eight and her mother started hearing voices.