Summary

In Chapter 1, the second-person plural narrators open the novel by describing a girl sitting by her pool in their neighborhood, Oak Knoll.

They switch to past tense to describe the girl as Juniper Whitman, a 17-year-old girl who has just moved into a brand new large house. Her house’s yard backs onto a yard full of trees. A boy from the yard says hello and introduces himself as her new neighbor.

In Chapter 2, the narrators describe Xavier Alston-Holt, the biracial neighbor who just introduced himself to Juniper. He is about her age, and going to the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in the fall for classical guitar, which he has played since he has six. His mother Valerie is an ecology professor and passionate environmentalist. She was upset by the clearing of all the trees in the Whitman’s property to build their...