Griswold introduces the narrative and major characters of Amity and Prosperity by describing a visit to the Washington County Fair by the book’s protagonist, Stacey, in August 2010. Stacey grew up in Amity, Pennsylvania—a small, rural town in Pennsylvania’s Washington county. Though Haney had originally gone to beauty school, she switched to a career in nursing, joining the “meds and eds” (or medicine and education) industries that had replaced the coal and steel companies as the region’s primary employers (15). Stacey attends the Washington County Fair every year with her children, 14-year-old Harley and 11-year-old Paige, where they enter their farm animals into the fair’s competitions.

Harley has spent most of the last year sick at home, missing school and basketball practice and becoming sullen and withdrawn. Stacey hopes that Harley’s participation in the fair’s competition will cheer him up. While at the fair, Stacey is approached by her neighbors, Beth and John Voyles. Beth tells Stacey that their puppy has died, and that she suspects he was “poisoned” (12). Beth blames a truck sent by the gas company Range Resources, which had used a mysterious liquid “to spray down dust” caused by the company’s trucks (13).