Summary

The prologue opens in 1972. Mary Galvin, seven years old, is walking with her 27-year-old brother Donald. She hates her brother and his erratic behavior, likely not realizing at her age that he is schizophrenic. In the forest outside their home, Donald agrees to let Mary tie him to a tree. She had planned to light a fire and burn him at the stake, but abandons that part of the plan and leaves Donald tied to the tree. Decades later in 2017, Mary, who has renamed herself Lindsay, visits Donald in his assisted living facility where she is a regular visitor who takes Donald on excursions and checks in on his medical care. In their family of twelve children, Donald is one of six brothers who developed schizophrenia at a time when very little was known about the illness or how to...