Summary

'The Plus-One Party' introduces the reader to the novel's first-person narrator, Avery Greer. The novel's initiating event happened a year before the main narrative, at the end of the summer of 2017. Avery was the first to arrive at the Blue Robin, a rental property owned by the Loman family that is situated atop the overlook of the fictional town of Littleport. According to Avery, Littleport is "a town carved out of the untouched wild, mountains on one side, ocean on the other, accessible only by a single coastal road and patience. It existed through pure stubbornness, pushing back against nature from both sides" (4). Autumn was just starting to settle in when the Plus-One Party (named for the summer renters who would stay an extra week) was held at Blue Robin.

Avery set up the party, as it was part of...