The reader first meets the main character, CM, on her way to Devil’s Throat, a prestigious artist residency, where she plans to work on her novel. The residency happens to be where she also spent summers as a Brownie and later a Girl Scout, but then it was called Angel’s Mouth. Anele, a fellow resident, asks CM to pose for a photograph. At first, CM thinks she and Anele have shared a bond through the experience, but she later finds out that Anele has taken photos of all the residents in positions that imply they are dead. The protagonist begins to resent the collective dinners as well as the judgment of her fellow artists.

One night, after the artists have shared their work with each other, CM gets into an argument with resident Lydia, who claims that the protagonist’s work echoes stereotypes of female hysteria. CM replies that her main character mirrors her own experience. Lydia tells her not to write about herself, to which CM replies, “Men are permitted to write concealed autobiography, but I cannot do the same?” (203).

While at Devil’s Throat, CM remembers her first queer awakening as well as a childhood humiliation, both of which took place by the residency’s lake.