Summary

In the Prologue, Karen Krupp is fleeing from an abandoned restaurant. In a panic, Karen is speeding, and she soon swerves off the road, crashing into a telephone pole.

In Chapter 1, Karen’s husband, Tom Krupp, arrives home from work to his and Karen’s house in a suburb in upstate New York. He feels a sense of shame for some reason that the narration does not specify. Tom finds that the door is not locked and that Karen has apparently left while in the middle of preparing dinner. She also left her phone and purse in the house. Anxious, he starts calling Karen’s friends on the phone to see if they know where she might be, but none of them know. Tom calls 911. Meanwhile, a police officer, Officer Kirton, arrives on the scene of the car accident.

In Chapter 2, three teenage...