Summary

The novel is narrated in the third-person past. Each chapter focuses on a central character. The prologue begins with a description of a young girl running away from a murderous man. Halfway through the scene, the sentence ends. Irene shut the book and threw it back down because it was nothing but “drivel.”

In Chapter One, the narrator introduces Laura, a young woman who suffered a traumatic brain injury when she was ten and now has disinhibition and trouble with her memory, emotions, and behavior. Laura took a shower and washed away the blood that was pouring out of a cut on her arm. She called her dad and asked him to come over, but his wife, Deidre, said that they had to go play bridge. She told her dad she was fine and went to take another shower. She stepped on...