Summary

In the prologue, it is 1969 and 13-year-old Varya Gold and her siblings, Daniel, 11, Klara, 9, and Simon, 7, live on Manhattan's Lower East Side at 72 Clinton Street. Their father, Saul, is a tailor, having taken over the business from his father. Their mother, Gertie, is a receptionist at a law firm. The children do not know much about their maternal grandparents, except that Gertie has a photograph of her mother, Klara, performing a circus act – hanging from a rope by her teeth. The Gold children plan to visit a psychic in their Lower East Side neighborhood who can supposedly predict when someone will die. It is Daniel's idea, as he overheard some boys discussing the psychic. Klara asks the owner of a magic shop about the woman, and buys a book about divination.

Upon arriving at the fortune teller's apartment, the Gold children are...