The book opens with 24 year old Janet's telephone ringing. When she answers it she immediately recognizes the voice as that of Floncy, a girl from her past who had disappeared without a trace 15 years ago.
When Janet was 9 years old her single mother had taken on a job as a housekeeper at Shorecrest, the impressive summer home of actress Evelyn Gilmor. There Janet has an amazing summer living in the little cottage on the grounds, enjoying days playing with Evelyn's kind hearted 17 year-old daughter Floncy and 13 year-old son Scott whom Janet has a crush on. The house is constantly being visited by famous friends, parties are always happenings, and romance is in the air as lovesick psychiatrist Dr. Bronson is at Evelyn's beck and call.
When summer ends Janet's mother stay on working for Evelyn in her city residence. Scott and Floncy are away at school and Janet eagerly awaits the next summer when they will all be at Shorecrest again.
However when the summer arrives it lacks the charm and magic of the last year. Floncy has taken a part in a local play and fallen in love with an actor named Todd Van Dyke. Evelyn does not approve of either of these things and makes Floncy give up the stage and Todd.
This causes constant fighting between Floncey and her mother and often Janet comes across Floncy sobbing alone on the beach.
One August morning Floncy is no where to be found and when a search of the house and grounds proves fruitless the authorities are called in but the case goes unsolved. After years of no sign of Floncy she is declared legally dead.
Yet here she is on the phone insisting that Janet come to Shorecrest right away, and to come alone.
Janet borrows a car from her perpetually friendzoned date, Dave, and starts the 3 hour long drive on a stormy winter evening. She finds the timing of this happening strangely coincidental as she had reason to think of her summers at Shorecrest twice recently. The first time when she had seen a woman that resembled Evelyn stepping out of a dr. Bronsons private hospital in the city. And the second when her mother, who recently got married, sent her a box of her childhood things, including a book she had borrowed from Shorecrest and never returned. However she put it in the mail to return it right away.
Once at the house she is greeted (and I use the term loosely) by Ida, one of the maids that Janet's mom worked with, and Scott. Neither whom are happy to see her. Evelyn, Scott says, is very ill and can not be excited with claims that Floncy is alive and making phone calls.
Janet is granted an audience with Evelyn who appears weak and looks ill but retains her former charm. When Janet says she will be leaving soon Evelyn insists she stay for the night in the little cottage on the grounds.
Reluctantly Janet accepts. She would rather have stayed at a motel as Shorecrest no longer has the charm it once had. It's gloomy and subdued, even the art had been stripped from the walls.
Despite her discomfort Janet sleeps well as she is tired from the drive and emotional strain of the day. In the morning she dresses and is ready to leave right away but as she steps out of the cottage she finds a man's dead body on the porch, with a knife in his back.
She runs screaming into the main house where she finds Scott. He calls the police and after a long wait alone in the library the sheriff comes in to question her.
He informs her the man is Judson Brock, a former groundskeeper Janet remembers from her childhood summers. Ida and her sister Carrie have wasted no time in telling the sheriff that Jud and Janet's mother had had a romantic relationship one summer and with that information the sheriff starts piecing together a fictional story of Janet killing Jud. Suggesting the man was threatening to tell Janet's new step father about the romance unless he's paid off leading to Janet killing him. He supports his theory with the fact the knife was taken from the cottage kitchen.
Although not under arrest, Janet is told to stay in the vicinity until the state police arrive to investigate. Distraught Janet goes for a walk on the beach and up a cliff that use to be one of Floncy's special places. Sitting on the edge of the rocky cliff Janet feels a hand against her back pushing her over the edge. She manages to hang on and pull herself back up but she is badly shaken and runs back to the house, and into the arms of Scott who her childhood crush on has been revived. Alone together that night he kisses her and Janet wonders if she's secretly loved him all these years. However the moment is ruined when he admits he doesn't believe Janet's story of being pushed off the cliff.
When Janet heads for church service the next morning Scott joins her and afterwards they go for a long drive, stopping at a little restaurant for lunch. After this Janet is sure she is in love with Scott. On the drive back to the house Janet notices a man working at a shooting booth on the board walk but it's not until she's back in her room that she realizes the man is Todd Van Dyke.
Sure that he must know where Floncy is she sneaks out of the house to go talk to him but outside she runs into Dave who has read about the incident in the paper and has come to help Janet as a lawyer and a friend (and a simp).
Together they go to town and ask where Todd lives then head to his house which is really a one room shack. Todd, who had plans of going to Hollywood to become a famous actor, has remained in the small seaside town for 15 years, still in love with Floncy, and determined to learn what happened to her.
He tells Janet that he has surveilled Shorecrest for the last 15 years, keeping track of the family's coming and goings, and breaking into the house when it's closed for the winter to look through it for any information that could explain Floncy's disappearance.
It's through these break-ins that he found Floncy's deceased fathers will in which he left all his money in a trust fund for Floncy and left Scott nothing. Todd and Floncy were planning to elope days after her disappearance with Scott being the only one she told.
Because of this Todd believes Scott killed her. This theory is backed up by Scott having her declared legally dead which caused him to recieve her inheritance.
Janet refuses to believe Scott could be involved and despite Dave's instance she wont tell the sheriff this information.
On the drive back to Shorecrest Janet says she want to see her mother as she would have a better understanding of the happenings of Shorecrest 15 years ago than 9 year old Janet did. Dave gets permission from the sheriff for him and Janet to make the 3 hour trip to see her mother the next day. Her mother tells them she had heard from Jud over the years as he kept pursuing her and that she suspected he was blackmailing people as he had suddenly acquired a lot of money. But besides that she has no new information for them besides reminiscing over the grand summers at Shorecrest.
When Dave drops Janet back off at the house that night he tells her that not informing the police about Scott is obstruction of justice and he wont be able to represent her legally. Janet still insists on not telling the sheriff. Dave says in that case he will have to return to the city that night but if she changes her mind he will still be at his motel until 9.
Back inside her room Janet is thinking over what her mother said when suddenly it all becomes clear. She knows what happened to Floncy, who did it and why, and that her life is in danger.
She sneaks to the kitchen and calls Dave, arranging to have him meet her at an intersection, then goes outside where she sees a man and women in a car pulling out of the garage but cant see their faces.
Once with Dave she explains everything to him (but not to us). A car appears to be following them but Janet doesnt care, she just wants to get to a destination in the city; the private hospital owned by Dr. Bronson. Once there the car following them is revealed to be Todd. Together the three of them force their way inside and demand to see Floncy. Evelyn appears trying to play innocent but Dr. Bronson knows the jig is up. Floncy is brought in, vacant looking from years of sedation. Todd tenderly wraps her in his arms, his unending devotion rewarded.
It's revealed that 15 years ago Scott, upon learning of Floncy's upcoming elopement, had told his mother, and she, together with Dr. Bronson, Jud, Ida, and Carrie, had put Floncy in Bronson's hospital, gaslighting her that she was severely mentally ill. Meanwhile they pretended she had disappeared so as to have her declared dead and Scott receive her inheritance so he could give it to his mother who is a compulsive spender. This had worked successfully for them until Janet saw Evelyn leaving the hospital one day. The woman Janet thought "looked like" Evelyn was in fact her and she was convinced Janet recognized her a such. When Janet then mailed the book to her soon after she believed this to be some kind of threat that implied Janet knew what was going on.
Impersonating Floncy she lured Janet to the Shorecrest so she could kill Jud, who was blackmailing her, and have it pinned on Janet, thus killing two birds with one stone. She then tried to push Janet off the cliff with the plan of it appearing as a suicide.
With the truth revealed Floncy is taken to a hospital to recuperate, the guilty parties are arrested, Janet realizes her feelings for Scott were simply childhood memories, and to Dave's great happiness she realizes it's he she loves.
- I read it in one reading because it was too hard to put down. It was very suspenseful and I just had to find out what happened to Floncy.
- The backstory is woven into the whole book really wonderfully and skillfully.
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