Larry Ott is the town recluse due to his believed role in the disappearance of Cindy Walker when he was 16 years old. Now, 25 years later, Larry lives frozen in time in his parents’ house, which has remained mostly unchanged, even though his father has died and his mother lives in a nursing home. With no friends and his mother suffering from Alzheimer’s, Larry lives a lonely life and takes scraps of companionship wherever he can find them, including from the deeply troubled Wallace Stringfellow. However, as the novel progresses, Larry’s remembrances of the past reveal that he has a complex bond with Silas Jones, his childhood friend and, as he later discovers, his half-brother. This relationship becomes further complicated when Larry learns that Silas could have proven Larry innocent of killing Cindy and saved him from years of isolation. The novel ultimately ends on a hopeful note, however, with Larry’s loyalty to Silas for so many years rewarded with a true reciprocation of friendship, and the promise that, though Larry cannot reclaim his past, he will have a less lonely future.