Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual harassment, physical abuse, child death, racism, illness, death, and substance use.

The novel flashes back to Traci Eddings’s childhood.

Traci is fishing with her grandfather when she sees the Saint Cecilia, a hotel that looks like a fairy-tale castle. Her grandfather tells her that the Saint is for rich people: “People like us don’t belong over there” (1). At 13, Traci attends a birthday party for a friend at the Saint and is impressed by its grandeur. When she and her best friend, Shannon, are 15, they get jobs as lifeguards at the Saint Cecilia resort. They learn that while the rich members are referred to as the “Saints,” people like Traci and Shannon are mocked as the “Ain’ts.”

The novel returns to the present.

Traci is in her office at the Saint. Charlie Burroughs, the general manager who has worked there since he was 14, stops by. Charlie has seen the hotel through many disasters, including the death of Hoke Eddings, Traci’s husband, whose plane crashed four years ago. Charlie reports that the restaurant’s chef is leaving and taking her husband, their guest relations manager, with her. Like many business owners around town, Traci is finding it difficult to hire young people to work for the hotel.