Chapter 1 starts with the book’s protagonist and first-person narrator, Avery Kylie Grambs, a teenage girl in her junior year of high school in New Castle, Connecticut, thinking about her mother. Avery reflects on the “games” her mom played with her as a kid, like “The Who Can Make Their Cookie Last Longer?” game and “I have a Secret.” Avery says that it was one of her mother’s secrets that “landed her [mother] in the hospital” when Avery was 15 (1). Avery’s mom has passed away, but this isn’t confirmed until Chapter 8. The story jumps to the present, showing Avery playing chess with a homeless man, Harry. The two play together regularly. When Avery wins, Harry has to let her buy him breakfast. Avery then goes to school, where she is called into the principal’s office and accused of cheating on a physics exam.

Later that day, Avery goes home where she has an exchange with her half-sister Libby, who is seven years older and an orderly at an assisted living facility. They share the same father but have different mothers. She gives Libby the tips she’s earned from her after-school waitressing job at “a hole-in-the-wall diner” (5).