Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of child abuse, sexual abuse, grooming, and suicidal ideation.

Vix (Victoria Leonard) is working for an “edgy” PR company during the summer of 1990 when Caitlin Mayhew Somers calls her. Caitlin is marrying Bru (Joseph Brudegher) at Martha’s Vineyard, and she wants Vix to be her maid of honor. They haven’t seen each other in two years, and as Caitlin speaks in a “princess voice,” Vix “doodles” like a sixth-grader. After they hang up, Vix runs to the bathroom to vomit.

Caitlin greets Vix at the tiny airport and notices that Vix looks “grown up.” They hug, and Vix feels like they were always together––they remain “summer sisters.”

In 1977, Caitlin (age 12) transfers to Acequia Madre Elementary School in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and her pale hair, “satin skin,” and blue eyes make her popular. She’s tough and cusses, and she invites the shy Vix Leonard (also 12) to spend the summer with her on an island (the Vineyard) in the middle of the ocean (the Atlantic) with her dad.

Vix asks her mom, Tawny, if she can go, but her mom thinks it’s a bad idea, though her dad, Ed, a quiet but kind person, takes Vix’s side and convinces Tawny to let her go.