Home

Most of the novel takes place in Molly’s home, as both the themes and narrative heavily focus on Molly’s experience of parenthood. Molly is married and has two young children. However, her husband David is often out of town for work, so Molly often must take on a larger share of the parenting responsibilities. When Molly is at work, she often pays a babysitter named Erika to take care of the children. When Moll (Molly’s double from a parallel universe) appears, Molly is often relegated to hiding places while Moll takes turns mothering the children. Moll eventually decides to return to her own universe.

The Pit

Molly works at a fossil dig site fairly close to her home. She often refers to the site as the Pit. In the Pit, she finds some interesting plant fossils, as well as some human artifacts that appear to...