Content Warning: The novel contains graphic descriptions of suicide and references to animal and child abuse, and centers on the mental-health condition of dissociative identity disorder (DID).

Told in the first person, this first chapter describes the arrival of the family (narrator Sadie, her husband, Will, their two sons, Otto and Tate, and the family dogs) to the house in Maine they have just inherited from Alice, Will’s recently deceased sister. Along with the house, which is located on a small island, comes Imogen, Alice’s 16-year-old daughter. Imogen is a dark and surly teenager. The house is described as gray and full of moldy and dusty furniture. Sadie and Otto are not pleased by the move, unlike Tate and Will, who seem ready to embrace their new life and create their new family.