The following version of this book was used to create the guide: Moore, Liz. The God of the Woods. Riverhead Books, 2024.

The novel opens as camp counselor Louise realizes that Barbara, one of her charges, is missing from her bunk. Barbara was out the night prior even though this is against the rules, and she knows she could get in serious trouble. Barbara is the daughter of the wealthy people who own the preserve the camp is built on, and as such, Barbara is a particularly dangerous person to have lost. A search ensues, and the police are brought in.

Bear, or Peter IV, is the first born in Barbara’s family. While the reader does not discover what happened to Bear until the end of the novel, he died before Barbara was born. His mother had gotten drunk after finding her husband in bed with her sister. She took the boy out on a boat in a storm and he accidentally drowned. His mother, Alice, does not know entirely what happened to her son because she blocks it out most of the time, aided by the drugs her husband, Peter, and his father, Peter II, pumped her with after his death to keep her quiet. She believes, through much of the novel, that Bear is speaking to her. Peter III, Peter II, and the groundskeeper Vic are the only ones who know what happened to Bear.

Bear’s disappearance had been blamed on a man named Carl. He worked on the Van Laar property and was friends with the boy. He taught him how to carve figures out of wood. He was the last person to see Bear according to reports made to the police. Carl’s friends come to warn him that he will be taken into custody the next morning, but he cannot leave because of heart problems. He dies while in custody, and the Van Laars let everybody believe that he killed Bear. They are aided by LaRochelle, a member of the police who uses this case as a stepping stone in his career. His wife spends the years after his death searching the woods looking for evidence to clear him. Rumors at the camp refer to her as Scary Mary, and nobody really knows who she is.

There is a new investigator in this case, Judy. She is among the first female investigators in the state. She has her own personal issues as her family wants her to continue living at home despite the fact that her job is hours away. She looks deeply into the case and is the only one who finds where Barbara really is. In the interest of protecting the girl’s peace of mind and safety, Judy does not tell anyone of Barbara’s whereabouts and lets her remain hidden until she chooses to make her presence known in the future. Her male coworkers would have alerted people to her whereabouts in order to advance their own careers.

By the end of the novel, the reader learns that Barbara escaped with the help of TJ, Vic’s daughter. Her parents were about to send her to a behavior modification school that she refused to attend. TJ taught Barbara everything she needs to know in order to survive in TJ’s remote cabin alone until Barbara’s eighteenth birthday when she will be free from the control of her parents.

TJ and Barbara frame a man named John Paul, a woman-beater and attempted rapist, for Barbara’s disappearance. They do this because he previously beat his fiancee Louise and tried to rape her. He cannot be charged with murder because Barbara’s body is never found. He is, however, charged with his crimes against Louise after she reports him.