Summary

Chapter 1 brings readers on a small adventure with Cora and Sharesa, the motel worker who is obsessed with death. She takes Cora to a unique show on the Erie, a show that Sheresa calls art and Cora calls weird. When Sheresa drops Cora off, two strange things happen to Cora. First, Sheresa relays a message from Ruth that Cora should not leave “him there alone” (252). Second, Cora’s motel room is trashed and something in the room hits her on the head, causing her to black out.

In Chapter 2, readers are back in the snowed-in cabin with Nat, Ruth, and Mr. Bell. Mr. Bell gives more information about Etherism and takes Ruth and Nat to the old temple where he shows them The Book of Mardellion. Nat ventures off in the abandoned mining town. He wants to convert the abandoned worker cabins into homes...