The novel is narrated in first person from David Beck’s perspective. Elizabeth and David Beck return to Lake Charmaine to celebrate the anniversary of where they first met when they were 7 years old. They are now 25. Although the pair have been inseparable since they were childhood sweethearts, there is a “chasm” (1)between them, driving them apart. As they drive up, David hears “the ghosts […] swirling and battling for [his] attention” (3). The ghosts are of his parents, who were subjected to some as yet undisclosed misfortune and anticipate what is about to happen to Elizabeth. After a lake swim and intimacy “when everything felt so right again” (6), David grabs a raft and collapses onto it. He watches Elizabeth get out of the water as his raft drifts farther from the shore. He loses sight of her and tells himself that he will disclose what he has been keeping from her. He hears her scream and, when he finds his way out of the water, is hit over the head with “something like a baseball bat” (10). The second blow sends him toppling backwards into the lake, and he hears Elizabeth scream again.