Summary

Part 1 is titled The Book of Shadows. Chapter I opens in the town library. Jet Owens hears the deathwatch beetle, knowing that she will soon die. Jet reflects on her ancestors and the family curse which Maria Owens, “the first woman in their family to set foot in Massachusetts in 1680” (4) placed on the family. The curse dooms the person with whom any member of the Owens family falls in love to death. Jet remembers how some in the family try to outwit the curse by never declaring their love, not living together, or not marrying. Sally, Jet’s niece, is twice-widowed by the curse. Because of the curse, Sally “decided not to reveal the Owens' fate to her daughters” (8), Kylie and Antonia.

As spring approaches, Sally finds herself “observing the world through a scrim of gloom...