Chapters 1 through 4 Summary

As the story opens, Hattie Owen is in her home. Her parents have gone out for the evening, but she isn't alone because the family operates a boarding house and Mr. Penny and Miss Hagerty are both upstairs. Hattie is watching home movies. She's pleased that her father trusted her to do everything, from setting up the screen to feeding the reels of film through the projector. She says that she turned twelve the previous summer and that she will forever look at the summer as a turning point in her life because of Adam. She says that she dates things as "before Adam" or "after Adam".

As the movie begins to play, Hattie sees Angel Valentine, who was also a boarder over the summer when Adam came. Angel is standing on the front porch of the boarding house, waving toward...