Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses death by suicide and drug addiction.

An unidentified narrator discusses in the past tense a nationwide drought that plagued America in the early spring. By May, the drought that began in the western states had reached North Carolina. There, lake levels dropped dangerously low. The narrator suggests that this natural disaster was followed by something far more personal in the town where she lives: “It was something quieter—something we didn’t understand at first. Quieter, but no less dangerous” (2).

The story opens on May 15 after 62 days without rain in the small North Carolina town of Mirror Lake. A 28-year-old woman named Hazel Holt returns from the big city of Charlotte to attend her father’s funeral. Detective Perry Holt, then in his sixties, died unexpectedly of a heart attack. His daughter and two sons, Gage and Caden, join the rest of the town in mourning his passing. Perry was a pillar of the community, and both his sons followed him into law enforcement.

Perry’s ceremony is upstaged by another major event. With lake levels dropping, a submerged car has been discovered at the bottom of Mirror Lake.