Content Warning: This section references bullying, abuse, self-harm, and suicidal ideation.

Elaine Risley is both the novel’s protagonist and its narrator. She is introduced as a middle-aged painter revisiting Toronto, the town in which she grew up, for a retrospective of her work. As the narrative jumps back and forth between the present and the past, it becomes clear that Elaine’s childhood has stayed with her long into adulthood.

As a child, Elaine first lives a free, nomadic life with her family while her father works as a field entomologist. She thrives in this environment and develops a close bond with her brother. However, she longs for elements of the normal life she reads about in books—especially to make friends with other girls. Elaine eventually makes friends with Carol Campbell and Grace Smeath, with whom she participates in the conventional games of small girls. However, she also finds herself to be somewhat different to the other two girls in her daring, her willingness to play more dangerous games, and her family’s relative poverty. Cordelia’s entrance into the group brings these differences into sharper relief. Elaine becomes the victim of Cordelia’s exceptionally cruel “games,” which amount to psychological torture but also instantiate many of the societal pressures women face (and sometimes enforce).