Lizzy's accident is horrific. The first driver who comes upon her lying in the road thinks she's dead. He moves her off the road, swearing and pleading, and then flees.

And Lizzy's injuries were critical; she remembers the nurses and doctors saying that she wasn't going to make it. She spends time in the hospital, then in rehab. She misses "most of two seasons."

But the accident pales with the other losses that dominate this first section. Lizzy is sure that her Uncle Mike, Father Mike, the priest who raised her after her parents' deaths when she was 2, has come to visit her in the hospital. But as Father Mike's story unfolds, we learn that he too is a big loss in Lizzy's life. When she was 9, he was sent away for reasons she didn't know. She then learned he had died suddenly. Only much later, as an adult, does she learn that Father Mike had been falsely accused of molesting her, apparently after the dour housekeeper saw her in his bed, where she'd taken refuge from nightmares.

Not surprisingly, Lizzy is obsessed with this feeling that Father Mike visited her, to the consternation of her husband, Drew, and her best friend, Mariette. For them, the accident and its aftermath has been the loss of the Lizzy they knew. "I miss you," Mariette says to Lizzy at one point.

The other wrinkle is that we learn Drew was contemplating leaving Lizzy -- and she knew this. The accident occurred after she fled the house, trying to run away from her crumbling marriage. Now Drew says he isn't leaving -- "What kind of man would leave you now?" he asks -- but I'm not so sure.

Drew prides himself on being a "stand-up" guy, and he holds a lot of venom toward the motorist who moved Lizzy, called for help and then fled.

But in a surprise, we and Lizzy meet Harry Griggs, the motorist. And in a twist, despite his many faults, he may turn out to be the stand-up guy. As we end this section, Lizzy and he are forging a strange, secret relationship. She lies to Drew, tells him she's seeing a "Dr. Griggs."

What do you think? How do you explain Lizzy's insistence that she saw Uncle Mike? Is there any hope for her marriage to find its footing again?

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