Content warning: These Chapter Summaries and Analyses contain scenes of graphic murder, violence against children, Satanic worship, and references to addiction, death by suicide, and child molestation.

Libby Day, 31, lives in Kansas City, Missouri. She is the survivor of a family massacre: At 2am on January 3, 1985, when Libby was seven, her older brother, Ben, killed her mother and two sisters. Libby’s narrative voice is caustic, and she has a low opinion of herself: “I was not a lovable child, and I’d grown into a deeply unlovable adult. Draw a picture of my soul, and it’d be a scribble with fangs” (1-2). Libby does not dwell on childhood memories because they lead her to “Darkplace” (9), the night of the murders. The massacre turned Libby into a tabloid celebrity, and when she turned 18, she inherited $321,374 from a fund of public donations. Now, 13 years later, her inheritance has almost run out. She is going to have dinner with her fund manager, Jim Jeffreys, to discuss the situation.

They meet at a local steakhouse. Jeffreys tells Libby, in a grandfatherly way, that there is only $982.12 left in the fund.