Content Warning: This section of the guide features depictions of anti-gay bias, sexual content, and cursing.

In March 31, 1995, a mysterious man named Nate Cartwright is driving south. At the foot of the Cascades, he enters a town named Roseland, Oregon, which has a population of 827. He pulls into a gas station called Big Eddie’s Gas and Convenience. A large man walks out of the gas station. His name is Big Eddie. He knows Nate from years back, and he now acts surprised that Nate has come back to Roseland.

Big Eddie expresses sorrow over the deaths of Nate’s parents, who died earlier in the year when Nate’s father killed his mother, then died by suicide. Nate’s mother left him a cabin, and his father left him a truck. Now, Nate has returned to town to live in his inherited cabin, fleeing from something in his past. Big Eddie asks about Nate’s past experience of working as a journalist for the Washington Post.

Nate feels very conflicted about his current situation. He had not spoken to his family in years, ever since the day his father kicked him out of the house for being gay. Nate’s parents had caught him with a boyfriend up at