Part 1, Alice, Chapters 1-2 Summary

Alice Goodwin recalls awakening to a wailing siren last June, but finds that all well on the farm. Howard is in his barn and Emma and Claire are asleep. She looks forward to the pond. Ill-tempered Emma rattles her but Alice is sure that she has everything under control. During the school year, Alice is a school nurse, but summers she and Theresa Collins, mother of Audrey and Lizzy, take turns watching all four girls. On the fateful morning, as Theresa drops off her girls, everything frazzles Alice and she is slow noticing that Lizzy is missing. Suspecting that Lizzy has gone to the pond, Alice panics, pulls the lifeless body out, and forgetting her training, performs ineffective CPR. Alice cannot be shaken from her belief that paramedics will save Lizzy. In Chapter 2, Alice spends three agonizing...