Summary

In the Prologue, narrator Heather Cash begins to describe the terror of being pushed into adulthood. She feels that 15 years old is still a kid, but 16 years old is an adult. She compares that transition to being thrown from an airplane with a bag containing some of the accouterments of adulthood. She feels that her entire life is “sharp edges.” Later, she learns that there are contributing factors to her feelings other than approaching adulthood. She says the adults had seemed to congratulate themselves in 1976 – the year of the American Bicentennial – though they had nothing to do with America's success. To Heather, 1977 was the more honest year. Three Pantown kids would die while their killers moved around “in plain sight.” She promises to show the reader.

The chapter following the Prologue but before Chapter 1 is titled “Beth.” Elizabeth McCain is at the...