The novel opens with an excerpt from protagonist Lisa Power’s thriller novel, also titled Thief River Falls. In the excerpt, a boy is being buried alive by two malicious men. The boy alludes to another man buried with him who is already dead. The boy tries to remember his mother’s advice which was to play dead. Once the boy can’t hear the men’s voices anymore, he digs himself out of the dirt.

Thriller author Lisa Power drives home from Thief River Falls, MN to a home she bought and renovated on a plot of farmland outside of town. Entering the house, the narrator notes, “This was her castle in the middle of nowhere, a place where she could pull up the drawbridge and keep out the world” (6). Lisa remembers how she was able to buy the house after actress Reese Witherspoon acquired the film rights to her novel, Thief River Falls.

After Lisa takes a shower, she logs online to video chat with a book club group in California. Lisa is frequently invited to attend virtual book clubs and library events. Lisa responds to the book club members’ questions, explaining that Thief River Falls is her real hometown, that she used to work as a nurse before the movie deal that allowed her to become a full-time writer, and that she is not married.