Joy is the main character and protagonist of the story. When the story begins, she is a high school librarian in Bakersfield, California. A year after she walked in on her husband and sister having an affair, she is still struggling to return to herself. She feels untethered, lost, and lonely in her large house, where she used to live with her ex-husband. The first half of the book tracks Joy’s adventure in Rain Valley, but when she wakes up in Bakersfield having been in a coma, she is revealed as an unreliable narrator, and for the rest of the story, she grapples with her own mental state.

In the beginning, she blames her sister for the state of her life, but as the story goes on, she begins to take responsibility for her multi-layered unhappiness. She acknowledges that her marriage with Thom was over long before Stacey slept with him. She faces the fact that she has let her dreams die because she was afraid to follow them. After her experience with Bobby and Daniel, she sees the happiness she can attain if she lets herself try. Her experience in Washington and her recovery from the plane crash change her—she gains the strength to lean on her faith, forgive her sister, and pursue the life she wants.