The dread of something having changed, some new, poisonous derangement. Usually, there was nothing. Hadn't been for years. Today was different.
-- Narrator (Prologue)

Importance: Sil's discovery of the Polaroid online incites the narrative conflict and action. The prologue begins with Sil's mounting feelings of dread. Her internal unrest inspires her to look up her mother online, and in turn to discover a formerly missing photograph of her and her mother 16 years prior. This moment awakens the past for Sil and catalyzes the temporal shift into Sil's childhood with the start of Book I.

I hadn't felt the urge to make a protection for us in a long time. I was proud of that . . .
-- Narrator (Book I)

Importance: Sil tries to abandon her superstitious rituals when she and her mother move to the Morningside, because she wants to believe the place will give them a new start. She wants to let go of her childhood games, because she...