The novel opens with Frances “Frankie” Budge answering the telephone. The voice on the other end is unfamiliar and calls Frankie by her full name, causing Frankie to believe it is merely a telemarketer. Before Frankie can hang up, the caller quickly recites a strange phrase, and Frankie joins in the recitation. The caller gives her name—Mazzy Brower—and explains that she is a journalist writing a piece on the Coalfield Panic of 1996 and is nearly certain that Frankie is responsible for the panic. After some hesitation, Frankie admits she was indeed responsible, or at least partly. Mazzy wants to meet to discuss the event further, but Frankie ends the call. As she watches her young daughter, Junie, play drums, she is fearful of what is about to transpire.

At the Coalfield Public Pool, Frankie Budge and Zeke Brown meet. Frankie explains the pool’s tradition of covering a watermelon in Vaseline and then dropping it into the pool; swimmers compete to push the watermelon to the pool’s edge. Frankie is uninterested in the competition, but Zeke asks her to team up with him. Zeke explains that he is new to Coalfield and has observed that Frankie appears to be alone.