Summary

In the Prologue, Danny Leavitt, an eight-year-old boy, had found a body the night after the storm. He saw a bicycle in the brush off the boardwalk. He figured the wind had blown the bike away. So, he pulled it up onto the boardwalk. There was a body lying face down underneath the bike.

Part 1 of the novel is set on June 26. Each chapter is told from the focus of a different character as indicated.

In Chapter 1, told from the focus of Lauren Parker, Lauren hoped for a relaxing summer after the scandal at her children’s prestigious school. Francis Whitney, the headmaster of 20 years, had been uncovered as a fraud who faked his college resume and pretended to be British to be hired by the school system.

Lauren, her husband (Jason), and children (Arlo and Amelie) were preparing to leave for...