Summary

In Chapter 1, Emma Davis, the novel's narrator, introduces herself as a painter who always begins her work by painting three girls in the same order: Vivian, Natalie, and then Allison. She paints them as small figures in white dresses on a huge canvas with a forest background. She then uses paint layered on with a putty knife to cover the girls in three-dimensional leaves, vines, and trees. These girls, cabin mates with Emma 15 years ago at Camp Nightingale, went missing from the camp and were never found.

Twenty-seven of those paintings are displayed at Emma’s first gallery show. Randall, Emma’s broker, has turned the gallery into an urban forest with real trees as decorations. There are many important people in the art world there, but Emma is most pleased when she sees Marc Stewart, a friend from art school. Hiding...