Content Warning: This section discusses racism, sexual assault, child abuse, child marriage, pregnancy loss, and violence.

The Prologue is narrated in the first person by L., though she does not identify herself until later in the novel. She drifts from topic to topic. She begins by thinking about the difference between the women of the current generation in the 1990s and women from previous years when she grew up. Though women today are more sexually promiscuous (according to her), she thinks that there have always been women who have used sex or bravado to cover up their inner vulnerability or childhood trauma.

She also remembers a local urban legend about monsters called Police-heads who live in the ocean. The Police-heads act as an explanation for senseless evil (such as accidental drowning) and also provide a way of keeping people in line: “dirty things with big hats who shoot up out of the ocean to harm loose women and eat disobedient children” (4). She thinks about the contrast between the danger of the Police-heads and the vibrant nightlife of a resort run by Bill Cosey, which catered to wealthy Black guests.