“The knife was a tradition—it had cut every birthday cake, every Christmas cake, every Somebody-Needs-Cheering Up cake in the Nicolson family’s history—and their mother was a stickler for tradition.”

This early passage develops the character of Laurel’s mother as a devoted housewife and the center of their large, close-knit family. The knife is a symbol of the traditions and closeness she has established for them, but also becomes the murder weapon which she uses to protect the life she’s created and nurtured.

“She’d dreamed […] of Gerry as a boy. A small and earnest boy, holding up a tin space shuttle, something he’d made, telling her that one day he was going to invent a time capsule and use it to go back and fix things. What sort of things? she’d said in the dream. Why, all the things that ever went wrong, of course—she could come with him if she wanted.”

This dream Laurel has of her brother hints at the bond between them; they were the only children to witness their mother’s act of murder. This passage foreshadows the decision Laurel will make to investigate the past and, if she can’t fix it, at least make peace with it.

“She’d suffered so much, but she still had things to live for—she’d find things to live for. This was the time to be brave, to be better than she’d ever been before. Dolly had done things that made her ashamed to remember them; her grand ideas had been nothing but a young girl’s silly dreams, they’d all turned to ash in her fingers; but everybody deserved a second chance.”

This early chapter shows the crucial scene of the boardinghouse discussion between Dolly and Vivien from Dolly’s point of view, offering a red herring—context clues that imply Dolly Smitham and Laurel’s mother are the same person. Dolly’s resolution hints at the plot she is guilty of as well as the theme of dreams and second chances. The scene turns out to be deeply ironic because it is Vivien who takes her own second chance as a result of Dolly’s death. Dolly’s repentance makes her a sympathetic character.