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The thirteen-year-old Salamanca Tree Hiddle begins her narration of the novel with a flashback to the moment when she and her father first moved to Euclid, Ohio from their farm in Bybanks, Kentucky. Salamanca (Sal for short) is horrified when she sees the small, cookie-cutter houses pressed up against each other and realizes how different this place is from their the farm, with its trees, swimming hole, wide-open spaces, cows, and chickens. Her alarm increases when she sees Margaret Cadaver, a friend of her father's who helped him find a job in Euclid. Sal begins to panic as her father urges her out of the car and into Margaret's house. In her consternation, she scans the houses around her and spots a small face in an upstairs window. The face, Sal explains, belongs to Phoebe Winterbottom, who becomes Sal's friend in Euclid.