Seventeen-year-old Saffyre Maddox is introduced as a teenager in psychiatric care with Roan Fours for trauma and self-harm.

Georgia Fours is followed home from school by a man, and Cate spots him lurking in the shadows outside.

Tilly reports being touched near the Fours' home, police are called, but she later retracts her statement.

Roan tells Saffyre she has made sufficient progress and formally ends their clinical relationship.

Owen Pick is suspended from his teaching job after female students submit sexual harassment allegations against him.

Owen meets Bryn at a pub, who gives him Rohypnol and tries to recruit him into a violent incel movement.

Cate reads a newspaper report announcing that Saffyre Maddox has gone missing on Valentine's Day night.

Detective Currie places Owen under arrest after blood evidence, Saffyre's phone case, and Rohypnol are found in his home.

Owen recalls Saffyre asking him to boost her onto his roof on Valentine's Day, and police find her fingerprints there.

Cate takes Josh to the police station, where he reveals Saffyre's connection to Roan's ongoing affair with Alicia.

Josh tells police that Harrison John threatened to kill him after catching Josh following him in the street.

Saffyre attacks Harrison from behind on a dark street and breaks the fingers he used to assault her as a child.

Harrison is arrested for the neighborhood sexual assaults after Tilly identifies him as her attacker to police.

Uncle Aaron picks Saffyre up from Alicia's apartment after she comes out of hiding.

Saffyre recalls that Josh's black jogging clothes and balaclava came from Roan's dresser, implicating Roan in the neighborhood assaults.

Saffyre Maddox, a teenager haunted by childhood trauma, has been treated by psychiatrist Roan Fours for years when he abruptly ends their clinical relationship. When Saffyre vanishes on Valentine's Day, the evidence quickly points to Roan's socially isolated neighbor Owen Pick, who is arrested on seemingly overwhelming grounds. As the investigation unfolds, Saffyre's friend Josh provides the police with crucial testimony about her movements that night and her shared mission to confront her childhood abuser, Harrison John. Saffyre eventually emerges from hiding after exacting her revenge on Harrison and triggering his arrest. The novel closes on a chilling note when Saffyre realizes the balaclava worn by the neighborhood's serial attacker was found in Roan's own dresser, implicating the trusted psychiatrist in the crimes.

The core mystery of Saffyre's disappearance and its resolution.

Roan shows Cate a news report about the third sexual assault committed near their rental home that month.

Georgia tells Cate that their neighbor Owen Pick is the same man who followed her home from school.

After Roan ends their sessions, Saffyre stands outside his office and watches him smoke a cigarette with a young woman.

Owen refuses to attend the mandatory sexual harassment training seminar and quits his teaching job.

Owen goes on a Valentine's Day date with Deanna and discovers he is capable of genuine, comfortable connection.

Saffyre follows Roan for months and discovers he is conducting a long-term affair with a red-haired woman.

Saffyre learns that Roan's affair partner is a psychiatrist named Alicia, and she watches Josh befriend a fox at the building site.

Police search Tessie's garden outside Owen's window and recover Saffyre's phone case as key evidence.

Roan tells Detective Currie he spotted Owen standing drunk outside their house on Valentine's Day night.

Saffyre confronts Roan on the street by asking how Alicia is doing, visibly unsettling him.

Saffyre overhears Roan promise Alicia on New Year's Eve that he will leave Cate so they can be together.

Cate discovers black athletic clothes and a balaclava hidden inside a bag in Josh's bedroom.

Josh tearfully confesses to Cate that he borrowed Roan's running clothes after wetting his pants.

Owen completes his sexual conduct rehabilitation course, writes apology letters to his accusers, and regains his job.

Cate and her children move into their newly renovated home after she separates from Roan.

As the Fours family settles into their rental, escalating reports of local sexual assaults put Cate on edge, and suspicion quickly falls on the socially isolated neighbor Owen Pick. Saffyre begins stalking Roan after he ends their sessions, eventually uncovering his long-term affair with fellow psychiatrist Alicia, while Owen's desperate loneliness draws him toward incel culture before a Valentine's Day date with Deanna offers him a glimpse of something better. Evidence against Owen mounts rapidly, but cracks in the case begin to show when Cate's search of Josh's room surfaces a hidden balaclava and dark athletic clothing. Josh's tearful confession about the clothes shifts suspicion back toward Roan, and Cate ultimately separates from her husband and reclaims her life. The novel resolves with Owen earning rehabilitation and a fresh start, and Cate returning to her renovated home with her children, free of Roan's manipulation.

Neighborhood tensions, parallel investigations, and character journeys.

Cate has a flashback revealing she secretly searched Roan's patient files and later stalked Saffyre outside her school.

A Valentine's Day envelope addressed to Roan arrives, Georgia opens it, and Cate hides it in a drawer without reading it.

A police officer visits Owen to ask questions about Tilly's assault, formally connecting him to the neighborhood incidents.

Owen walks home drunk on Valentine's Day night and spots a young girl peering through a window across the street.

Cate recalls that Roan had an affair during graduate school, a betrayal she forgave but never fully recovered from.

Josh visits Saffyre's martial arts studio, and Saffyre's grandfather later dies, deepening her isolation and depression.

Georgia tells Cate that Owen has been arrested and that blood was found on the wall outside his room.

Owen learns in jail that police cannot trace Bryn's identity or his forum, suggesting Bryn erased all evidence of himself.

Saffyre encounters Harrison John on the street and he greets her casually, causing her to self-harm for the first time in years.

Uncle Aaron shows Cate a piece of paper found in Saffyre's jacket listing Josh's name alongside neighborhood assault dates.

Saffyre tells Josh how Harrison sexually assaulted her on a playground when she was ten, the first time she has told anyone.

Elona tells Cate that Tilly lied about retracting her assault report because she knew and feared her attacker.

Saffyre arrives at the Fours' house on Valentine's Day and asks Alicia not to confront Cate about the affair.

Owen visits his father Ricky and confronts him about how his childhood experiences shaped Owen's hostility toward women.

Alicia warns Saffyre that Roan once masturbated to a patient's rape fantasy, suggesting he may be a hidden predator.

The novel's most pivotal revelations unfold through a series of carefully placed discoveries that reframe everything the reader thinks they know about the characters. Cate's secret investigation of Roan's files, her growing suspicion about the men in her own household, and Uncle Aaron's delivery of Saffyre's handwritten note all chip away at the appearance of domestic safety. Saffyre's friendship with Josh becomes the emotional core of the story as she finally gives voice to Harrison's childhood assault — the secret she could never share with her psychiatrist. The investigation nearly destroys the innocent Owen before Elona confirms that Tilly knew her attacker and the real culprit emerges. The novel closes with Alicia's devastating warning about Roan's hidden nature and the realization that the balaclava in Josh's bag belonged to Roan, leaving his guilt as a predator chillingly unresolved.