Summary

In the Prologue, Jack Masterson is on Clock Island off the Maine coast. Here, Jack has brought to life the island in his series of fiction books. Each location on the island corresponds to a time on a clock. He has been living on the island with Hugo for five years, but Hugo wants to leave. Hugo thinks Jack is wasting his talent because he is no longer writing just as Jack used to think Hugo was wasting his talent when he stopped painting. Hugo is ready to leave the island when he sees the light in Jack’s writing factory come on, and Hugo gets hopeful that it means Jack is getting out of his funk.

As Part 1 opens, there is an excerpt from Masterson’s The House on Clock Island. Astrid wakes up to a bright light...