Don't You Cry

The novel alternates between two narrators whose seemingly unconnected stories converge in a shocking revelation. In Chicago, 22-year-old Quinn Collins wakes on a Sunday morning to find that her roommate, Esther Vaughan, has vanished from their shared Andersonville apartment. The bedroom window is pushed open, the screen removed, and the fire escape is empty. Quinn, hungover from a night at a karaoke bar, assumes nothing is seriously wrong. But Esther, a graduate student in occupational therapy who sings in a church choir, normally brings Quinn coffee and a bagel each Sunday. When noon passes with no sign of her, Quinn grows uneasy. Searching Esther's bedroom, she finds a typed letter addressed to "My Dearest," signed "All my love, EV," describing jealousy and obsession over a romantic rival. Quinn begins to question whether Esther, whom she considers saintly, is hiding a secret life.

Seventy miles away in a small Michigan lakefront town, 18-year-old Alex Gallo works as a dishwasher at a café run by his sharp-tongued boss, Bronwyn Priddy. Alex lives with his father, Pops, a 45-year-old man with an alcohol addiction who cannot hold a job. Alex turned down a full scholarship to the University of Michigan to care for Pops after a hospitalization for alcohol poisoning. The café's routine shifts when a mysterious woman with ombré hair and a worn pearl bracelet enters and sits by the window. Alex is captivated and privately nicknames her "Pearl." He notices she stares fixedly at a blue cottage across the street housing a psychologist's office. Priddy regularly sends Alex to deliver meals to Ingrid Daube, a woman in her fifties with agoraphobia who lives across from the café and treats Alex with maternal warmth. Ingrid once made him a shark's tooth necklace "for strength and protection" (110).

Back in Chicago, Quinn reports Esther missing and discovers Esther's cell phone in the coat closet. A blocked call comes in from a gruff male voice who says Esther missed their appointment and calls it "a confidential matter" (73). A second call reveals that Esther placed an ad in the Chicago Reader seeking a new roommate, which Quinn interprets as proof Esther wants to replace her. On Monday, Quinn enlists her coworker and close friend Ben, a 23-year-old project assistant with plans for law school, to help investigate. Ben offers to search for Esther's family using LexisNexis, a legal database for public records, since Esther has never spoken about them.

A deeper search of Esther's bedroom yields disturbing finds: a box of blue colored contacts suggesting her signature heterochromatic eye may be fake, handouts on the grieving process, and a completed petition legally changing Esther's name to Jane Girard. Passport photos appear in a sleeve with one image missing, but no passport is found. A second typed letter to "My Dearest," also signed "EV," asks desperately, "Do you remember me?" (146). Quinn recalls Esther once asking, "If you could change your name to anything, what would you choose?" (136).

In Michigan, Pearl begins appearing at the café daily, traveling by Amtrak from Chicago. Alex pays for her coffee, and she asks, "We're friends, right?... You and I. We're friends" (234). That evening, he finds Pearl sleeping inside an abandoned house across from his home, a place locally rumored to be haunted by the ghost of a girl named Genevieve, who allegedly drowned as a child. Pearl reveals that her parents gave her up for adoption and that she tracked down her biological family, but they "still didn't want me" (261). Alex gives her his shark's tooth necklace, and they walk the streets holding hands. In the following days, Pearl's behavior grows unsettling: Alex finds her cradling a cloth doll in an upstairs bedroom marked with a wooden "G," singing a lullaby. She asks him to take her to Genevieve's grave, where she lies in the fetal position and weeps. The next morning, Alex secretly follows her back to the cemetery and watches her dig up the grave with a shovel. After she leaves, he approaches the open casket and discovers it is empty.

Quinn's investigation takes a grim turn when Ben discovers that Quinn's bedroom previously belonged to Kelsey Bellamy, a 25-year-old substitute teacher who died weeks before Quinn moved in. On Kelsey's Facebook page, friends and family blame Esther for Kelsey's death. Quinn visits Nicholas Keller, Kelsey's fiancé, who explains that Kelsey had a severe peanut allergy. On the night she died, Esther cooked a stir-fry with peanut flour, claiming she forgot to substitute regular flour. Kelsey's EpiPen, a self-injectable device containing epinephrine to counteract anaphylactic shock, was missing and never found. Ben and Quinn also reassemble a shredded photograph from Esther's room, revealing an image of Quinn with a red line slashed across her throat.

The case shifts when Detective Robert Davies contacts Quinn. He reveals that Esther passed a polygraph during the investigation into Kelsey's death and called him Saturday night, frightened by a threatening note, but never made their Sunday meeting. Davies suggests the threatening photograph was not Esther targeting Quinn but someone else threatening Esther by targeting Quinn. This theory is confirmed when an unrelated woman returns Esther's purse, found in a garbage can. Inside is a third letter, a direct confession. The writer describes swapping the peanut flour in Esther's kitchen and stealing Kelsey's EpiPen. She reveals she has been copying Esther's appearance: "Once you were the only Esther Vaughan, but now I am Esther, too" (339). The writer is Esther's older sister, given up for adoption as a child. Esther found her online hoping for a reunion, but the sister became obsessive, seeking revenge for being abandoned and wanting to replace Esther in their mother's life.

In Michigan, Alex learns from a librarian that the abandoned house belonged to Ingrid Daube, whose married name was Vaughan, and that Genevieve was Ingrid's daughter. He races to Ingrid's home, realizing Pearl was never watching the psychologist's office but was staring at Ingrid's house. Pearl, now revealed as Genevieve, confronts them with a kitchen knife. Ingrid reveals the truth: Genevieve was never dead. As a deeply troubled child, she tried to suffocate baby Esther with a pillow. Ingrid arranged for Genevieve's adoption and buried an empty casket, telling the community Genevieve had drowned. Genevieve announces she has killed Esther and set fire to the abandoned house. Ingrid charges her, and Alex joins the struggle. The knife enters Alex's abdomen, and as he collapses, police sirens approach.

In Chicago, Quinn uses keys from Esther's recovered purse to open a storage unit on Clark Street. Inside, she finds Esther alive but severely weakened after five days of captivity, bound and gagged. Esther explains that Genevieve intercepted her Saturday night, dragged her down the fire escape, and locked her in the unit. The roommate ad was not to replace Quinn but to find Quinn a new roommate because Esther planned to disappear under her new identity to protect Quinn from Genevieve. Detective Davies returns Esther's phone, and she reconciles tearfully with her mother, who reveals that Alex Gallo saved Ingrid's life during the attack, calling him a hero. Genevieve faces a lifetime in prison on a murder charge. As paramedics transport Esther to the hospital, Quinn promises to stay by her side, and Ben arrives to comfort her. He turns to leave when his girlfriend, Priya, calls, but then comes back, and he and Quinn share a kiss on the street corner.