Annabelle Doll, a china doll depicting a female eight-year-old, lives with her family in a dollhouse in the bedroom of eight-year-old Kate Palmer at 26 Wetherby Lane. The dollhouse is over 100 years old and has always been in the same room, passed down through the female line. The dollhouse and Doll family have been lovingly cared for and are in almost the same condition as when they were new. The one difference is that Annabelle’s aunt Sarah is no longer with the family. Sarah disappeared mysteriously 45 years ago. As far as Annabelle is concerned, Sarah’s disappearance is the only interesting or important thing that has happened in her own life in the past 100 years—until today. Annabelle has found something that once belonged to Auntie Sarah. She is keeping this a secret.

Bored, Annabelle asks her younger brother, Bobby, if he wants to play tag. Bobby says that it does not seem like a safe time because the Palmers’ cat, The Captain, is right outside the open dollhouse, watching them. Mama confirms this. Mama is standing on her head next to the piano, downstairs, because this is where Kate left her before heading off to school that morning.