Samantha “Sam” Raymond

Sam is the novel’s protagonist. She is 53 years old and lives in Syracuse, New York with her husband (Matt) and her 16-year-old daughter (Ally). She has an interest in local history and works as a guide/curator at a local historical home. One day, she realizes that she is unhappy in her marriage. She moves out of her home and moves into a house in a less prosperous area of Syracuse. From that point forward, she struggles with her mother-daughter relationship with Ally, who resents Sam for leaving.

Sam tries to reassess her relationship to her daughter, as well as her relationship to the outside world. When she witnesses a police officer shoot an unarmed Black child to death, Sam files an official report of her eyewitness account. Unfortunately, the police officer is not held responsible. Towards the end of the novel, Sam suffers a...