Content Warning: This section contains mentions and descriptions of euthanasia.

An unnamed woman (who the novel will later reveal to be Allie MacDonald) packs up and sells everything that belongs to her husband. The only thing she keeps is a gift from him, a panel of stained-glass daffodils over a blue background. She remembers how, when he gave it to her, he warned her to be careful with the fragile object and wonders why she didn’t read the warning. By the time her husband returns from work, all of his things are gone. She waits for him to discover this and then walks into the center of town.

Maggie MacDonald makes her husband, James “Jamie” MacDonald, promise that he will kill her, no matter what. He tells her he loves her and then suffocates her with a pillow, keeping his promise despite her struggle in the end.

Thirty-five-year-old Cameron “Cam” Macdonald is the chief of police in Wheelock, Massachusetts. The town is where the descendants of the MacDonald clan from Carrymuir, Scotland, migrated to in the 1700s. Cam is named for the ancestor who was the clan chief or “laird,” who arranged the safe passage of his people to America in exchange for fighting beside Highlanders against the English in the Battle of Culloden.