Exposition (Initial Situation)

Home Sweet Home?

Joel Harrison Knox is sent to live with his father, Mr. Sansom, after the death of his mother. This part of the novel sets the stage for everything that is still to come. The fact that Joel's mother is dead and that he's leaving New Orleans, his home, means that he has lost a huge part of his identity and his life. Everything from now on will be new and strange, though we have a feeling Joel has no idea just how weird things will get.

Rising Action (Conflict, Complication)

Are You My Father?

Once Joel makes it to Skully's Landing, where his father lives, he meets a stepmother, a cousin, and a couple of servants, but his dad is nowhere to be found. The novel's setup then, that Joel will go live with his father, is thrown off.

If his dad doesn't live in Skully's Landing, where is he? And why did Cousin Randolph and Miss Amy send for him if his dad isn't around? These questions would be terrifying for anybody, but the isolation of Skully's Landing intensifies them.

Climax (Crisis, Turning Point)

Let's Get Outta Here

When Joel discovers that his father is paralyzed and that Randolph shot him, leaving him paralyzed, he knows he's got to get the heck out of Skully's Landing. He and his buddy Idabel, a girl from up the road, take off to the fair and get separated in a rainstorm.

This is Joel's chance to really get away from the awful situation he's in, but the elements conspire against him and he ends up sick with fever for weeks in a bed, watched over by Randolph, Amy, and Zoo, the cook.

Falling Action

Take a Hike

Randolph takes Joel to a ruined hotel in the woods to get him out of the house because, it turns out, his aunt has come to visit and Amy and Randolph don't want her to know what's really going on with the boy. Joel's life just seems locked into place now, with no escape from the crazy conspiracy Amy and Randolph have cooked up.

Resolution (Denouement)

Face the Facts

Joel realizes that Randolph has lied to him, but there's nothing he can do about it so he makes the decision to just embrace his life in Skully's Landing, leaving his old self behind. All hopes of escape or connection to his past life dissolve and he enters the house, where a strange woman (who might actually be Randolph) beckons him from an upstairs window.