Prologue through Chapter 3 Summary

The story opens with a prologue in which Frank Mackey is waiting just up the street from his house for his girlfriend, Rosie Daley. The young couple has planned to run away together and Frank believes that Rosie is having difficulty slipping away. Frank eventually goes into the abandoned house at Number 16, wondering if Rosie had gotten the plans confused. There he doesn't find Rosie but does find a note that seems to indicate that she's changed her mind about leaving with him. Frank leaves the note behind and walks away.

Chapter One begins twenty-two years later. Frank is an officer in the Undercover Unit of the Dublin Police Department. He is divorced and says that his ex-wife, Olivia, finally had the sense to kick him out. He lives in an apartment on the Quays and spends every weekend...