Lizzie listens, barely conscious, as the doctor explains to her parents that he is going to sedate her. It will take a few days for her to recover.

A couple of hours after the fight with his dad, Hugh’s mother gives him a ride to Lizzie’s. She asks him to be patient with his father, but Hugh insists that he can’t—Peter has completely abandoned his family. Hugh thanks his mom for being both of his parents.

Hugh finds Lizzie staring at the wall in her room. He lies down with her and promises that he will stay with her. She tells him that she has bipolar disorder, then apologizes. Hugh assures her that she has nothing to be sorry for.

A few days later, Lizzie talks with her therapist. The therapist asks how Lizzie is feeling, and Lizzie lies that she is doing better.

Hugh asks Lizzie’s parents for more information about her illness, but they insist he is too young to understand. Instead, he goes to the library and reads several books about it.

He visits Lizzie 13 days in a row. Initially, he just holds her while she sleeps. After a few days, they play cards. Then, Hugh convinces her to go outside.

Lizzie has very little memory of the last few weeks. She only remembers spending most of her time in bed and Hugh’s visits. Now, she is returning to normal.

On Lizzie’s 11th birthday, Hugh greets her on the bus. They go back to her house. Inside, they hear Caoimhe arguing with her parents. Caoimhe missed her exams after going to England with Mark. Hugh speculates that Caoimhe went to England to terminate a pregnancy.

Two weeks later, Lizzie is excited to go camping with Hugh and his family for three days. It is the first time she has been allowed to go somewhere without her parents.

While camping, Hugh takes Lizzie out into the water. He shows her the fairies’ sea cave, which fills with water and is hidden during high tide. Lizzie is awed by its beauty. She notes how everything sparkles. They kiss each other for the first time.

A month later, at the end of July, Lizzie sits with Hugh and the other rugby players. They gossip about a new player they are getting from Dublin named Johnny Kavanagh.

Sitting in the grass, one of the girls suggests they play spin the bottle. When it is Hugh’s turn, his bottle stops on Lizzie, and they kiss.

Their friends make them kiss for two minutes, which Lizzie is happy to do. She wants to kiss Hugh forever.

After the kiss in the cave, Hugh begins to realize that he loves Lizzie as more than a friend. He is fighting hormones that he doesn’t fully understand. He is frustrated that he can’t talk to his father about it.

At the end of summer, Lizzie, Hugh, and their friends camp out. They tell ghost stories for most of the night. When everyone has fallen asleep, Lizzie and Hugh go to the treehouse.

Hugh admits to Lizzie that he is having a hard time being around her because he loves her too much. He then overcomes his nerves and asks her to be his girlfriend. She says yes, and they kiss.

On New Year’s Eve, Lizzie and Hugh hang out with their friends while Caoimhe babysits.

The next morning, Hugh’s mother brings Lizzie into the kitchen with terrible news. Lizzie’s mother had a heart attack. Sinead comforts her, insisting that she will always be there for Lizzie.

When Hugh’s mother drives Lizzie home, they are shocked to see that Mark is there. He had been gone since last summer, when Caoimhe missed her test. Hugh comforts Lizzie, insisting that he will protect her.

In March, Lizzie tells Hugh that she is going to the United States, where there is an experimental treatment for her mother. Her parents are leaving next week, then Lizzie and Caoimhe are joining them at the beginning of April.

A couple of weeks later, Hugh, Lizzie, and their friends play at Hugh’s house. When Hugh and Lizzie are finally alone in the treehouse, they kiss.

On April 4, two days before Lizzie is supposed to leave for America, she has a nightmare of Mark pushing a coat hanger into her body. She yells in pain, but Mark insists that he needs to do this before her stomach “gets any bigger” (342).

Lizzie wakes up to Hugh saying her name. She is in the living room with no clothes on. Hugh is concerned, but she insists that she just had a nightmare.

The next day, Lizzie stays home from school to pack. However, she is overcome by immense pain in her stomach. When Hugh comes over, he tries to take her to the hospital, but she insists that she is fine. She goes to the bathroom where she bleeds profusely between her legs.

Lizzie comes out of the bathroom carrying bloody towels. When Lizzie explains that it came from between her legs, she and Hugh assume that it was just menstruation.

Lizzie is woken up in the night by Mark and Caoimhe fighting. Caoimhe angrily goes to her room, saying that she saw him molesting Gibsie and threatening to call the police. Lizzie then hears a door crashing open, and then Caoimhe yelling at Mark get off her. When Caoimhe calls Mark a monster, Lizzie realizes that Mark is the “monster” who has been hurting her and that her sexual abuse isn’t really nightmares.

In the middle of the night, Gibsie gets into Hugh’s bed, sobbing. He cries that it is his fault that his father and sister died. However, Hugh affirms that Gibsie did nothing wrong, promising to always be there for him.

A few weeks later, on April 24, Hugh’s mother wakes him up. She tells him that there was an accident. Caoimhe is dead. They are going to her house, where Lizzie and Mark are waiting. Hugh is confused, as Lizzie’s whole family is supposed to be in Texas for Catherine’s cancer treatment.

Lizzie remembers hearing Caoimhe arguing with Mark. Her perception of this argument is interspersed with awareness that Hugh is trying to get her to respond. In her memory, Lizzie hears Caoimhe call Mark a monster for getting Lizzie pregnant, and then telling Lizzie to run.

The only person who talks to the police is Mark, as Lizzie cannot speak to anyone. Mark claims that Lizzie had a mental health crisis the day they were supposed to go to America, so Caoimhe’s parents told them to stay in Ireland. Over the next three weeks, he and Caoimhe kept Lizzie heavily sedated. After Mark discovered that Caoimhe was stealing Lizzie’s medication, Caoimhe left a suicide note for her mother and jumped off the bridge into the river.

Mark’s story sounds untrue to Hugh, who finds several holes in it. Hugh feels helpless as the police struggle to verify or disprove it.

A few days later, Lizzie sits outside on the swings. Gibsie comes out and sits next to her. His presence makes Lizzie remember moments from the last few weeks. She was locked in a room with Caoimhe, begging Mark to let them out. Caoimhe gave her a note to give to Gibsie, telling her that they would be safe if they went to the police. However, Lizzie struggles to figure out what in her memories is real and what isn’t.

Mark comes outside. Gibsie tries to stay with Lizzie, but Mark forces him to leave. Mark tells Lizzie that he is leaving for college. He warns Lizzie to continue being silent or he will hurt Hugh.

After going to get measured for a suit for the funeral, Hugh returns to find Mark talking to Lizzie on the swings. He immediately confronts Mark, telling him to leave Lizzie alone. Mark defends himself, but Hugh accuses him of mistreating Caoimhe and emotionally abusing her.

Lizzie runs to Hugh and hugs him. Hugh ignores Mark and takes Lizzie back inside, insisting that Mark is just a bully. To Hugh’s surprise, Lizzie speaks for the first time, making Hugh promise not to die. He assures her that he will always be there for her.

During Caoimhe’s burial, Lizzie keeps waiting for them to announce that there was some kind of mistake as she tries to process Caoimhe’s death. As Lizzie watches Mark and his father console her parents, she becomes enraged by Mark’s false sympathy. She screams that Mark killed Caoimhe.

The funeral erupts into chaos. Mark and Lizzie yell at each other, while Lizzie’s father demands to know what happened. When Lizzie says that Mark hurt Caoimhe with his “thing,” Lizzie’s father accuses Mark of rape. Mark defends himself, calling Lizzie “crazy,” which causes Hugh to get involved.

When Lizzie spots Gibsie, she asks him to tell the truth about what happened. Gibsie hesitates, but repeatedly insists that he doesn’t know what Lizzie is talking about. Lizzie tells Gibsie to never speak to her again. Hugh realizes that “nothing [will] ever be the same” (380).