The novel begins in the autumn of 1943, in the middle of the Second World War, when a “dark-hearted girl” moves to Annabelle McBride’s rural Pennsylvania community and changes everything (1). Annabelle, who is not yet 12, knows that she cannot avoid participating in the events that arise. 

Life in the Pennsylvania hills, where Annabelle lives on a farm with her family, is peaceful until Betty Glengarry moves to the area. Fourteen-year-old Betty’s parents sent her to the countryside to live with her grandparents because she’s “incorrigible” (5). Betty throws spitballs in Annabelle’s hair and threatens her. Betty intimidates the whole school, and Annabelle senses that she is a malign force. Annabelle asks her grandfather how Wolf Hollow, a place in the hills, got its name. He replies that the community used to dig pits there for catching wolves. He maintains that wolves are wild animals that could never be tame enough to live in harmony with humans. 

Betty, who is waiting for Annabelle by Wolf Hollow, charges her with having “a rich girl name” and demands that she should bring her one of her possessions (14). She threatens that if Annabelle does not bring her anything, she will beat her and her younger brothers with a stick.