Ruth Thomas-Wishnell

The novel's protagonist, known by her maiden surname, Thomas, until the Epilogue when she marries, Ruth is described as having a difficult birth in the last week of May 1958, during terrible storms. She is the daughter of Stan and Mary Thomas. Her father is a native Fort Niles Island lobsterman and her mother is a former servant from Concord, NH. The pretty baby grows into a very pretty girl, with remarkable posture and striking presence. Her first word is a firm "no." At age four, Ruth is abandoned by her mother under mysterious circumstances and attaches herself to the neighbors, the Pommeroys and becomes the lone girl in a pack of boys. As she loves fun-loving Rhonda more than her mother, this is not traumatic.

At her mother's insistence, Mary is sent to an elite girls' boarding school in Delaware to broaden her horizons, but she does...