The prologue takes the form of a brief letter from Tom Kennedy to his son, Jake. In it, he says that he has difficulty talking to his son and has decided to write to him instead. He tells Jake about his fear when he was a new father and his lack of understanding what Jake wanted, which his deceased wife Rebecca attributed to his and Jake’s similarity. Ted says that he’s going to write down the truth about everything that happened in Featherbank, including “Mister Night. The boy in the floor. The butterflies. The little girl with the strange dress. And the Whisper Man, of course” (2). He then apologizes for telling Jake that monsters don’t exist.

The story begins on a July evening as an unnamed man (later revealed as Francis Carter) follows a young boy, Neil Spencer, as he walks across a waste ground near an abandoned quarry. Neil spent the day at his father’s house, and the man following him knows his parents are both alcoholics who largely let Neil fend for himself; he’s walking home because his father is too drunk to drive him.

The man has prepared a room for Neil in his home, and he watches Neil as he stops and throws rocks at an old television.