Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick introduces herself as an 81-year-old woman who stands six feet tall with broad shoulders and reddish-gray hair. She has lived on Kenny Lane, a small cobbled street in central Melbourne, Australia, for nearly 60 years. Her neighbors include Peter Pantages (“Pete the Greek”); litigious Joan Waters; Roxanne and her seven-year-old daughter, Persephone; “Old Ishaan” and his Chihuahua, Nugget; and the Nguyens. The neighbors rarely interact, which suits Elsie.

While making tea with her childhood friend Daphne, Elsie spots a paper under her front door. When she retrieves it, she discovers a photocopy of an old news article whose headline makes her lightheaded. She shows it to Daphne and says that someone knows who she really is. In a reflective aside, Elsie describes her narrative as a love story about platonic female friendship—the kind she shares with Daphne—and asserts that such friendships are worth killing for.

The following morning, Elsie reflects on the news article, which accurately reported her name, her parents’ names, her reclusive childhood, her time in a hospital, and the fact that everyone around her during her youth died. She feels exposed.

Persephone arrives and announces that she needs to interview an elderly person for homework. Elsie resists, but Daphne volunteers her. Persephone insists on calling Elsie “Elsa,” despite knowing that this isn’t her name. Peter complains about Nugget’s barking. Elsie suggests that Persephone interview Ishaan instead, but Persephone declares that he must be dead—he didn’t answer his door, and vitamin boxes have piled up on his step.

Unable to see through Ishaan’s dirty windows, Elsie climbs the shared fence into his backyard, scraping her ankle. Through the back-door glass, she sees Ishaan lying dead on the kitchen floor. For the first time all day, Nugget stops barking.

The narrative goes back in time to describe Elsie’s childhood. She was born in 1944 as Mabel Elsie Waller. Her parents, Elliott Waller and Mary Fitzpatrick, were wealthy and lived at Rosehill, a grand Edwardian mansion. Within the community, Mabel was referred to as “Mad Mabel,” but for much of her childhood, she didn’t really understand why.

When Mabel was six, her mother learned of the nickname after a boy called her “Mad Mabel” at Mass. On the walk home, Mary realized that her daughter had no friends. Mabel told her mother that she did have one friend for a little while—Daphne Barton, a former kindergarten friend who moved to England. As an only child of uninterested parents, Mabel’s childhood was desperately lonely. She was bullied for her red hair, height, and intelligence.

One day, Mabel approached a group of neighborhood children planning a fence-climbing race. Their leader, Billy Harris, assigned her the role of timekeeper and told her to wait in her garden for the winner. As the group ran off, Mabel understood that no one would come.

Rosehill was a spectacular Edwardian estate with a ballroom, conservatory, pool, and guesthouse. Mabel’s father often told the story of walking past Rosehill as a boy, seeing Mary in the window, and deciding that it would one day be his. Over time, Mabel realized that the true love story was between her father and the house; her mother was merely part of the property.

Mabel’s mother would often get ready while drinking sherry or gin. On good days, Mary would give Mabel makeovers, applying her signature blood-red lipstick. On bad days, she would cry inconsolably, and she once punched her fist through the dressing-table mirror. As blood ran down her mother’s wrist, Mabel noted that it was the exact color of the lipstick.

One night, Mabel was woken by a loud dinner party and went downstairs. A drunk guest questioned whether she was really Elliott and Mary’s daughter, implying that she lacked her mother’s beauty. Mary sent Mabel to bed.

Instead of obeying, Mabel hid near the staircase. A glamorous platinum-blond woman named Susan McGinty sat beside her and remarked on the loneliness of being an only child in such a big house. Susan mentioned that Mabel must regret “what happened to Kitty” (31). Before Mabel could ask what she meant, her father appeared and sharply ordered her to bed. From the top of the stairs, Mabel overheard Elliott tell Susan that they didn’t talk about Kitty—especially not with Mabel—and that Mabel was “mad.” Mabel felt deep shame.

Later, Mabel reflected that the only two things she liked about her father were his well-groomed hair and his fine wool socks from Harrods. She imagined that if she ever murdered him, she would donate his fortune to charity but keep the socks.

Back in the present, paramedics arrive on Kenny Lane, and neighbors gather. Elsie mentally corrects misinformation that Peter is spreading: Ishaan’s back door was unlocked, and he was clearly dead, with only a small trickle of blood from his ear.

Joan approaches the paramedics and suggests that Elsie should be investigated since she found the body. Daphne defends Elsie. Joan shouts at the neighbors, asking if they know who Elsie really is. Elsie is mortified that Peter might learn her past identity. Peter firmly tells Joan to stop talking. A police car arrives.

Elsie sits on her porch while the police are inside Ishaan’s house. She tells Daphne that Joan must have left the news article, and the two share uncontrollable laughter. Elsie reflects that this kind of shared laughter is the lifesaving part of friendship.

Two policemen arrive—Constable Harris and Detective Gibson. Harris asks about a scratch on Elsie’s arm, and she explains that Ishaan accidentally scratched her while she was returning Nugget to him and that she had been threatening to send the dog to a sausage factory. She mentions her dislike for Ishaan.

The narrative returns to the past. During her parents’ frequent travels, Mabel was cared for by her mother’s younger sister, Aunt Cecily—called “Cess”—an unconventional woman who wore slacks, smoked, and drank martinis. Mabel adored Cess’s best friend, Vanessa (Ness), a librarian who gave Mabel her full attention, praised her writing, and suggested that she keep a diary.

One day, Mabel overheard Ness and Cess discussing how Mabel’s parents should appreciate Mabel more, especially after what happened to Kitty. Ness declared that if Mabel’s parents were too foolish to appreciate her, she and Cess would do it.

Ness gave Mabel a copy of Anne of Green Gables, noting that the protagonist reminded her of Mabel. She pulled Mabel into a warm, deliberate hug. Mabel recognized it as the first time someone had hugged her simply because they wanted to, and she felt truly seen.

Following Ness’s suggestion, Mabel started a diary and wrote often about Cess and Ness’s friendship, which seemed magical. Their deep, wordless connection was unusual for two unmarried women and was the subject of town gossip. One day, Mabel told them that they were bosom friends, like Anne Shirley and Diana from Anne of Green Gables. Watching them filled her with happiness and an aching sadness that she might never have such a friendship herself.

During her parents’ parties, Mabel would hide in the kitchen with catering staff and then secretly observe guests from hiding spots, recording drunken behavior in her diary.

One night, while heading to her room, Mabel heard strange noises in the hallway. She saw a platinum-blond woman whose legs were wrapped around a man in a black suit. Mabel noticed his socks—maroon with gray diamonds, pure wool—and realized that the man was her father.

Two weeks after Ishaan’s death, his house is cleared. Elsie now has Nugget because the local shelter is at capacity; Peter has brought over a dog bed.

One afternoon, Persephone asks to play Uno. Elsie refuses and threatens to send Nugget to the sausage factory. She then suggests that Persephone take the dog. When Persephone reaches for Nugget, the dog bares her teeth; when Elsie reaches out, the dog licks her hand. Persephone concludes that Nugget wants to stay with Elsie.

After learning that Roxanne is sleeping in the middle of the day, Elsie tells Persephone to go play with a friend. Persephone replies that Elsie is her friend. When Elsie dismisses this, Persephone says that beggars can’t be choosers—and clarifies that Elsie is the beggar. Elsie is privately moved.

Elsie notices a menacing man loitering at the end of Kenny Lane. She spots Persephone hiding on Roxanne’s porch, looking frightened, and confronts him when he approaches. He asks if Roxanne lives there; Elsie lies and says no. Peter calls from his porch, and when the man asks him directly, he begins to answer truthfully but catches Elsie’s eye and lies—though his hesitation gives them away. Joan arrives with a younger man. The stranger leaves, telling them to let Roxanne know that Shane was looking for her.

Harris and Gibson arrive at Elsie’s door. Elsie states that Ishaan was no loss—his dog barked constantly and defecated in her garden, and she admits to throwing the feces back over the fence. Harris asks why she went looking for her nemesis. Elsie explains that she was trying to get him to do Persephone’s school interview instead of her.

Harris asks if she threatened to kill Ishaan. Elsie denies it, adding that if she were going to kill him, she wouldn’t have warned him first.

Before leaving, Harris says that they need to take her shoe as evidence. Elsie insists that the blood on it is from her own scratch. As they go, Gibson remarks that he had wondered what became of her, and Harris jokes that she had to change her name because she couldn’t go around calling herself “Mad Mabel.” Elsie soberly replies that she never called herself that.

At age 14, Mabel was sent to a summer camp while her parents holidayed nearby. She stepped off a dilapidated flying-fox platform and fell, breaking her arm and cracking ribs. Her mother arrived at the hospital smelling of wine and apologized profusely. Despite the pain, Mabel was grateful for what felt like genuine maternal care.

After surgery, Mabel woke to find her mother crying. Mary revealed that Kitty—Katharine—was Mabel’s younger sister, who died of polio at age one. Mabel had also contracted polio at three and a half. One day, while isolated on the patio, she was found playing with Kitty. No one knew how Kitty got outside; she contracted polio and died within a week while Mabel recovered.

Mary revealed that Elliott believed Mabel unlocked the door to the patio and deliberately infected Kitty out of jealousy. When Mabel asked if her mother believed this, Mary only asked if she did it. Mabel denied it, though she actually couldn’t remember.

Mabel spent monotonous days in the hospital. Her mother visited daily, drinking and smoking. Cess and Ness visited regularly with books and her diary. Her father never came. Dwelling on the story of Kitty, Mabel questioned whether she truly was “mad” and found comfort rereading Anne of Green Gables. She resolved to find a bosom friend of her own.

One morning, her mother arrived still in the previous day’s clothes, distressed at having discovered that Elliott was traveling to London with Susan McGinty. On impulse, Mabel told her mother what she witnessed in the upstairs hallway. Mary slapped her across the face, called her a “vile girl,” and asked, “What is the matter with you?” (84). Then, Mary walked to the fire escape and, without pausing or looking back, threw herself over the railing.

The day after the police take her shoe, Elsie and Daphne buy a replacement pair at a department store.

The next morning, Persephone lets herself into Elsie’s house and demands breakfast, complaining about the lack of baked goods. After Persephone helps herself to biscuits, Elsie finds herself considering baking banana bread for the child.

Realizing that Persephone hasn’t left, Elsie finds her peering into the closed second bedroom. Her heart hammers, and she sharply orders Persephone away, firmly shutting the door. Persephone looks wounded, apologizes with tears in her eyes, and runs out of the house.