Ten years later, Merritt Coletto—who is eight months pregnant—opens her front door to a timid, gaunt, disheveled woman claiming to be Lydia, the long-vanished first wife of Merritt’s husband, Luca. Merritt recognizes her instantly but is confused. Lydia is supposed to be dead. Merritt considers herself “a reasonable woman” (6), who doesn’t believe in ghosts, the supernatural, or the afterlife. She thinks about letting the woman in, noting that Lydia would be 30 now though this woman is timid and childlike.

Merritt thinks better of it: She’s alone, pregnant, and has a young daughter, Elsie, asleep upstairs. Her house overlooking the sea is far from town. She decides the woman is an imposter, “an opportunistic psychopath” (6), from a nearby camp for unhoused people.

Lydia asks if Luca is home, but Merritt deflects, not wanting to admit that he’s out of town. Merritt worries that the sound of crashing waves will drown out her screams, should the woman attack her. She thinks about how the small coastal town attracts people with strange backstories—from celebrities to con artists.

Even though it’s winter, she sends the woman away and bolts the door. After reviewing the security footage, she decides not to tell Luca, who is on a business trip in Newark, trying to sell their restaurant franchise to a national buyer. If he fails, they’ll face bankruptcy, ruined reputations, and, possibly, divorce. The prospect terrifies her.

In bed, Merritt recalls Lydia’s disappearance: She was quickly declared missing, and her backpack and cell phone were found at a cliff’s edge. A year later, after searches and court proceedings, she was declared dead.

Feeling threatened, Merritt brings her sleeping daughter into her own bed. She thinks about her difficulties with in-vitro fertilization (IVF) early in her marriage and what a good husband Luca has been while she’s pregnant. She resolves not to let “some lunatic” (13) ruin her hard-won happiness.

Unhoused and desperate, Lydia enters a local new-age shop in Bent Creek, The Blessed Alchemist, seeking a job. She’s already been turned away from another establishment and hopes someone will give her a change despite her appearance. She notes the buckets of crystals and angel cards on display.

Lydia calls out to see if anyone’s in the shop. A woman emerges from a backroom, her eyes wet from crying; it’s a customer who’s just had a tarot card reading. The owner, Delphine DuBois, follows. She’s thin and blue-eyed with “white-blonde hair and high cheekbones” (14). Delphine offers Lydia part-time work, calling her “Angel,” which surprises Lydia. Lydia found some clean clothes at a laundromat that morning but still looks rough. Internally, she recalls hitchhiking up the coast for the past two weeks.

Lydia tells Delphine she’s from Washington state, and Delphine says she is from Salt Lake City. She moved to this town a few years prior after losing her daughter, Amber, and divorcing her husband. Lydia says she’s in town to reconnect with an “old friend.”

Delphine gives Lydia a room above the shop in exchange for cat sitting and housekeeping duties, even though Lydia has no identification or address. Delphine couldn’t help Amber, but she can help Lydia. Lydia agrees to weekly drug tests and promises not to let Delphine down. When Delphine touches Lydia’s face affectionately, Lydia flinches.

The next morning, Merritt calls Luca to ask about his business trip. He hasn’t had any luck, and Merrit’s thoughts spiral about how they will have to close their locations and empty their retirement accounts. Luca tells her not to give up. She thinks about their instant success when wealthy West Coasters moved to town a few years ago, and their swift downfall when competition took their customers. Seeing moms outside pushing strollers, she admits that she doesn’t have any friends—though Luca more than makes up for them.

On the phone, Luca asks about Merritt’s upcoming cesarean section (C-section) and suggests naming their son “Everett.” While they talk, Merritt thinks back to the emergency C-section she had with Elsie.

The nanny, Annette, arrives. Merritt dislikes that Annette calls Elsie “princess,” because it implies that Elsie is spoiled. Secretly, Merritt is jealous of Annette and fears that Elsie likes Annette more.

Feeling anxious, Merritt lies to Annette, telling her to keep Elsie inside because of aggressive door-to-door solicitors, describing the woman from the previous night. Before leaving for a doctor’s appointment, Merritt double-checks the house’s locks and security cameras.

Delphine shows Lydia the small apartment and gives her some of Amber’s old clothes from the early 2000s. The bare-bones space is far better than the roach-infested basement units Lydia grew up in or the cabin in which she was held captive and raped for nine years. Growing up, Lydia’s mother could not hold a steady job. A “product” of a brief fling, Lydia never knew her father. Lydia has never had a pet, but she likes Delphine’s white cat, Powder, which belonged to Amber.

While enjoying a hot bath, Lydia thinks back to the ice-water baths her captor forced her to take. She thinks of him as “The Monster,” who laughed and “poked and prodded” her as she shivered (33). She was his lab rat, and he had a “sick curiosity” for pushing her limits.

Downstairs, Delphine gives an older woman a tarot reading. She collects $100 and gives Lydia the cash for groceries, toiletries, and a drug test.

While walking to the grocery co-op, Lydia is nearly hit by a BMW SUV driven by a woman. Recognizing the woman as Merritt, who wears a bun and black and stylish sunglasses, Lydia follows her into the store.

Merritt thinks about the term “geriatric pregnancy” the doctor used during her appointment. The elderly male physician roughly examined her and found it amusing that she was pregnant at 41. As she’s shopping, she starts to cry.

Inside, Lydia confronts Merritt, insisting she needs to speak with her husband, Luca. Merritt still thinks she’s a scammer. To prove her identity, Lydia reveals intimate details about Luca: his preference for cinnamon toothpaste and Marcona almonds, the birthmark on his back, and his appendectomy scar. Stunned, Merritt is speechless as Lydia walks away.

Lydia returns to the apartment and puts away the groceries, leaving the drug test on the counter for Delphine to see. The test makes her think about her mother’s substance use disorder.

Lounging with Powder on Delphine’s couch, Lydia thinks about the life Merritt stole from her. She notices Delphine’s books on divination and thinks about the power of suggestion: People can get rich “for telling people what they want to hear” (44). Lydia doesn’t have a belief system. The Monster made her feel insignificant, showing her newspaper articles that proved people had stopped looking for her.

She reads a book about crystals until Delphine comes home. Lydia takes the drug test and notes that Delphine seems expert at analyzing it. They have frozen lasagna for dinner, and it reminds Lydia of meals she shared with Luca during their marriage. She remarks on Delphine’s beaded necklace, impressing Delphine with her new knowledge of crystals.

After Lydia’s drug test is negative, Delphine offers to help her get a prepaid phone and a new ID. Lydia agrees, but she wants to meet Luca before her identity is discovered. She bristles when Delphine tells her to sit down and have some tea: It reminds Lydia of The Monster telling her what to do. She cracks her knuckles nervously until Delphine notices.

Over tea, Delphine tells Lydia about her hometown in Utah. While she talks, Lydia notices a photo of Amber, a slim teen with dark eye makeup and bleached blond hair, “dying to be anyone but herself” (52). After a while, Lydia feigns a headache and goes to bed, where she plans her “glorious” reunion with Luca.

That night, Merritt Googles Lydia and finds an old news article with photos, confirming the woman she met is Lydia Coletto. Lydia’s ordinary looks are “tragically forgettable” (55). Lydia and Luca has married impulsively, in Vegas, and Merritt understands why Luca moved on. He and Merritt married after the court declared Lydia dead.

Since there are no recent articles, Merritt realizes Lydia deliberately approached her before contacting the authorities. Pouring out a mug of cold tea, Merritt fears she’ll disappear like that when Luca reunites with Lydia.

When Luca calls, Merritt hides the day’s events from him. She looks at a “perfect” framed photo of her family and remembers coordinating their outfits. She hides the photo under her pillow, accepting that her life is about to change.

The next morning, Lydia is relieved when Delphine postpones their trip to the vital records office, giving her more time to find Luca. They have coffee, and Lydia recalls how she made herself like coffee after her escape from the cabin because she could drink it in a warm diner.

Delphine asks her to do their laundry, and Lydia notes Delphine’s loneliness: She needs Lydia just as much as Lydia needs her. On Lydia’s way to the laundromat, Lydia takes the scenic route, hoping to run into Luca or Merritt.