Summary

The novel opens with an unnamed 3rd person narrator explaining that no one in St. Paul expected the news about Walter Berglund. According to the press, Berglund was accused of dealing with the coal industry and mistreating workers. The narrator recalls that Walter and his wife Patty moved into the town of St. Paul Minnesota three decades ago (judging by context clues, the present is the early 2000s). The couple were relatively silent about their family, but it was known that Patty’s father was a lawyer and her mother was an assemblywoman on the East coast. Eventually, the two had two children, Jessica and her younger brother Joey (whom Patty constantly lovingly complains about).

Eventually, they became acquainted with their neighbors Seth and Merrie, and Carol and her daughter Connie. Patty would often take care of Connie when Carol went on her...