The narrator, Camille, a crime reporter for Chicago’s Daily Post, is working on a story when her editor, Frank Curry, calls her to his office. He asks her questions about her hometown of Wind Gap, Missouri, and reveals that a little girl, ten-year-old Natalie Keene, is currently missing. Considering that another Wind Gap girl, nine-year-old Ann Nash, had been murdered the previous year, Curry suspects a serial killer is to blame. As a result, he asks Camille to visit her hometown and cover the story. Camille initially refuses, but she is eager to please Curry and ultimately accepts.

On her way to Wind Gap, Camille stays in a hotel and takes a bath, revealing that she only takes baths and not showers because she “can’t handle the spray, it gets my skin buzzing, like someone’s turned on a switch” (5). Once in Wind Gap, she goes straight to the police station and attempts to get information about missing Natalie from Chief Vickery, but he refuses to give her a comment about the case. However, he does reveal that Ann Nash’s body had been found in Falls Creek.

Camille goes to the woods on the edge of town to join the search party for Natalie, hoping to gain information for her upcoming article.