Content Warning: This section of the guide contains descriptions of racism, suicidal ideation, and graphic depictions of dead bodies.

Adelaide Henry is a 31-year-old Black woman living on a farm in the Lucerne Valley of Southern California in the year 1915. Her parents moved to the valley as homesteaders when the United States government awarded them the land to be farmed. The novel opens with Adelaide Henry pouring a jar of gasoline on the floors and furniture of her family’s house with the intention to burn it to the ground. She is interrupted by Mr. Cole, an older Black man whom she has hired to transport her and her belongings. He is growing impatient and begins to open the screen door, noting the strong smell emanating from within. Adelaide worries that she may have to kill this man to prevent him from discovering her actions, but she convinces him to wait outside just a bit longer.

Adelaide continues upstairs to her parents’ bedroom, where their dead bodies lie in bed, covered by a sheet. They have been violently killed, and the bed is soaked with blood. Adelaide begins to douse their bodies with gasoline as well, but she stops short on her mother’s side of the bed.