Summary

Chapter 1 opens by introducing the four surviving members of the Lee family in the wake of the middle child Lydia's disappearance on a Tuesday morning in 1977. Although the readers immediately know that "Lydia is dead" from the first line of the chapter, the Lees do not initially know this, and this first chapter explores how the family learns that Lydia has died. At the breakfast table, Lydia's older brother Nathan ("Nath") and younger sister Hannah trade details of 16-year-old Lydia the night before. Marilyn, the mother, is anxious but does not hint at her anxiety to the Nath and Hannah. She sends them off to school and then calls Lydia's school only to find that Lydia was not in her first period class. Marilyn continues to search the house, even opening the cupboards, before she gives up and calls her husband, James, at...