Content Warning: These Chapter Summary and Analyses contain discussion of murder, rape, child abduction, and mass shootings, which feature in the source text.

The Greer Mansion is one of the original houses in the wealthiest part of Claire Lake, Oregon. It was ugly when it was built and made uglier by Julian Greer when he bought the house in 1950. His renovations, undertaken to try to make his wife Mariana happy, created a strange mishmash of Victorian and mid-century modern design, overlooking a bleak lawn that ends at a cliff’s edge. By 1975, Julian had been shot in the kitchen of the house, and Mariana had died in a car wreck. But there still seems to be a ghostly presence in the house.

Shea Collins is 29 years old and works as a receptionist in a doctor's office. She has been divorced for nearly a year. She is quiet and reserved and takes the bus to work while listening to thrillers and true crime podcasts. Her sister Esther calls and asks her for dinner at her house. Shea agrees to dinner but threatens to talk about true crime when Esther wants to set her up with a date for the evening.