Into the Water starts with an excerpt from Nel Abbott’s book, The Drowning Pool. In this excerpt, Libby Seeton, the first victim to die in the Drowning Pool in the 1600s, briefly contemplates her life before dying. 

Jules Abbott returns to Beckford following the death of her sister, Nel. She admits feeling no sadness over Nel’s death, only anger at having to return to “sort out your bloody mess” (6). 

Josh Whittaker wakes in the middle of the night to find his mother, Louise, missing from the house. He notes that this is “what Katie did herself: she got up in the middle of the night and went to the river and didn’t come back” (8). When Louise returns, she tells her husband and Josh that Nel Abbott is dead.