Nora (also called “Lee” and “Leo”) is a 26-year-old novelist and the narrator of the novel. Reluctantly compelled to attend the hen do (bachelorette party) of her former best friend, Nora finds herself in an uncomfortable situation that turns into a terrifying ordeal. As she details the events of the past, both long-term and recent, Nora is an unreliable narrator. She suffers amnesiac trauma surrounding the murder of her former boyfriend, James Cooper, who was also the groom-to-be. Learning that the police consider her a suspect in the murder, Nora struggles to piece together her memories of the past weekend. She remembers these details in a slow, layer by layer fashion, and reveals the secrets of her past to the reader in the same way.

Nora is an exceedingly private and guarded person, whose desire to keep her past behind her develops her solitary and routinized nature. Her comfortable life shatters when she agrees to attend the hen weekend of her former best friend Clare, even though she and Clare have not spoken in a decade. Overall, Nora is a caring person who tries to do the right thing. As Nora explains her past trauma, the reader becomes aware of her motivations for having sequestered herself from other people.