Summary

The novel begins with an excerpt from Vanity Fair. it explains that a woman named Althea went missing for some time. However, she returned with fairy tales from the woods. The writer of the article says all communication with the author was over the phone, as her home in the woods was impossible to find.

The novel then shifts to the first person view of an unnamed teenager and granddaughter to Althea. She and her mother had been living on the road for years. The narrator is so desensitized to strangers that she once travelled with an unknown man for 14 hours before police found her. He had claimed he was a friend of Althea, but her mother called him a crazy fan. The narrator reveals that Althea died when she was 17 years old. Her mother, Ella, got a letter at a place they had...