Summary

Pages 3 - 28 -- The first page of the novel is a letter from Colonel Terrence Marker, an instructor at the U.S. Army War College to Dr. Jeanine Ernestine, a sociology professor at the University of Pennsylvania. Colonel Marker is sending five journals retrieved from "an abandoned Old Order farmhouse" in Pennsylvania, which he says were written "both pre- and post-event" (3).

Immediately after, the novel moves into the main narrative, which is the content of the journals. The diaries begin on September 2nd, with the narrator, Jacob, holding his daughter Sadie as she suffers through a long seizure. Sadie writhes and sees visions of falling angels. The next night Jacob writes in his diary again, but describes his struggle to sleep, pray, or write. His father raised him to believe that writing was prideful, but Jacob writes to "remember the blessings" and preserve memories...