Maelyn “Mae” Jones, the protagonist and point-of-view character, is sneaking through a mountain cabin, hoping not to wake anyone. As she proceeds, she feels accompanied by “a barrage of memories from last night like a flip book rolling through [her] head” (2). It is December 26, and the house is decorated for Christmas, but she is concentrating on reaching the attic, where she wakes her family friend, Benny. Mae’s parents, Elise and Dan, attended college with Benny and with Dave and Lisa Hollis, the cabin’s current owners. Their other college roommate, Aaron, is also attending the holiday with his husband, Kyle, and twin children, Kennedy and Zachary. The group has spent most major holidays together for decades.

Now speaking to Benny, Mae explains that her predicament began last night, when she was playing board games with Dave and Lisa’s sons, Andrew and Theo, and her teenage brother, Miles. Andrew left to sleep in the family’s drafty entertaining space, known as the Boathouse, because he refuses to sleep in the basement bunk beds that the group used as children.

Mae shamefacedly reports that after Andrew left, she and Theo kissed in the kitchen.