Cassie serves as the protagonist of the novel’s contemporary timeline. A dynamic and round character, she begins the story in a state of arrested development, affected by the grief of losing her husband, Henry, in a car accident 15 months prior. A writer by trade, she has abandoned her career, and her apathy impacts her ability to care for her home and her daughter, Birdie, who has selective mutism as a result of her trauma. Cassie’s journey is one of gradual re-engagement with life, catalyzed by her move to her grandmother Bobby’s house and the discovery of her family’s hidden history. Her background as a history and journalism major makes her the ideal character to uncover and piece together the past, though her initial motivation is to understand Bobby’s strange behavior. The process of transcribing Bobby’s journal forces Cassie to confront a scale of suffering that contextualizes her own, allowing her to see a path forward. Her evolution is marked by external actions, such as removing her wedding ring and opening herself to a new relationship with Nick, which symbolize her internal shift toward embracing the future without erasing the past.