Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the novel’s treatment of drug addiction and death by suicide.

The Prologue begins with the narrator’s observation that death summons people back together. “It’s like the sound of a high-pitched whistle for a dog that has strayed from its owner. When it happens, they always come” (11).

In the small Wisconsin town of Allen’s Grove, an elderly woman named Laura Thomas lies dying. Her eldest daughter, Beth, has moved back home to look after her in her final days. Beth resents receiving no help from her two younger siblings. Her sister Nicole is unreliable due to having a drug addiction, while her brother Michael became a success and moved to the West Coast. He hasn’t been back home in seven years.

Laura loves to watch the sunset from her window. On this particular afternoon, Beth sits beside her and realizes that Laura won’t live to see another one. Just before she dies, Laura speaks of Beth’s father, who abandoned the family seven years earlier. With her dying breath, she gives Beth a warning. “Your father. He didn’t disappear. Don’t trust...” (17). Laura never finishes the sentence, leaving Beth to ponder what her words mean.