The narrative is taken up by a psychiatrist during the 1930s who is called to assess the mental health condition of a young man named Robert. His mother, Lillian, is anxious because Robert is paranoid and hallucinates. Lillian’s daughter, Helen, is six years younger than Robert and does not seem to have the same condition.

Lillian recently moved back to a property she inherited in western Massachusetts. It belonged to her grandfather, a button manufacturer who planned to turn the estate into a hunting lodge. The plan never succeeded, and the house fell into disrepair after the Great Depression. The doctor notes, “Mother says the patient improved when left alone, but would walk in the woods for hours, and could only be engaged on the topic of his persecution, the details of which she defers to my meeting him” (215-16).

Speaking to Robert convinces the doctor that the boy would benefit from a new medical procedure. He’s referring to a lobotomy, though he never mentions the operation by name. Robert clearly needs relief from his persecutors, a gang of entities whom he calls the “Harrow.” He’s convinced that civilization is about to rupture and that he’s the only person who can repair it.