Summary

Before Part 1, the novel starts with a story about the drowning of a woman named Libby from the perspective of The Drowning Pool. In Part 1, Section 1, spanning from pages 5-60, the novel begins in 2015 from the perspective of Jules telling the reader she had just learned of her a woman named Nel going in the water and that she has to go and take care of the situation. The next voice is from a boy called Josh on Monday August 10, 2015 as Josh watches and listens for his absent mother. His mother subsequently returns home and he hears his mother tell his father that Nel Abbott is dead, and she sounds relieved.

The voice switches back to Jules and she describes driving to Beckford and her home called the “Mill House,” her memories of her family, and her sister’s preoccupation with cliffs against...