Chapters 1-4 Summary

Keith Landry is a career soldier who served several tours of duty in Vietnam and has functioned as a spy in the twenty years since the war ended. With the end of the cold war, Keith finds himself without a job, so he has decided to return to his old hometown.

In chapter one, Keith drives to Spencerville, Ohio to the family farm that was deserted five years previously when his parents retired to Florida. Keith enters the house, still consumed with anger at his forced retirement and wondering how long he will remain in his hometown.

In chapter two, Annie Baxter watches as her husband finishes his dinner and prepares to return to his job as chief of police in their small town. Annie wonders if her husband knows that she knows he uses work as an excuse to hide...