Chapter 5 Summary

Main Novel

This chapter volleys between present-day and the mid-1920s through the late 1930s in the history of the Chase family. Readers are permitted the chance to know Iris as an old woman and also get to know how Iris came to be that old woman.

It is 1925 and Liliana Chase has died after the premature birth of her third child. Iris is saddled with caring for Laura and knows that it is going to be a full-time job. Even though Reenie acts in a motherly fashion toward both girls, it is Iris who tends to Laura's everyday needs. They must be each other's best friend, because they are not permitted to go off the grounds of Avilion alone. It is during this time that Iris tries to figure out why her mother died as well as how to explain to Laura...