Much of the population in a small town--and maybe even the world--have magically vanished, and the church bells in the town won’t stop tolling. After school, the children sit outside and play “the bell game,” where they go around in a circle to the rhythm of the bells, each person saying the name of a different vanished person. If someone repeats a name or breaks the rhythm, the game ends. The religious children who pray around the flagpole never join, because they think it’s sacrilegious. Corrine is a teenage girl with a crush on her best friend, Lissa. Lissa is religious but joins the game to play with Corrine. Recently, Lissa has been doubting her faith. This makes Corrine, who is agnostic, feel less alone after her mom disappeared, especially because Corrine and Lissa disagree about other important things. Lissa wears her sexual purity ring and has stringent opinions on “what is normal behavior for two girls who are just friends”--for example, she doesn’t want Corrine to touch her elbow or hug her due to her religious beliefs. One day, while playing the bell game, Corrine notices Lissa seems anxious. Moreover, Lissa always says the name of her disappeared sister, even though you’re meant to say a different name each time. Though Lissa claims she’s fine, she continues to appear distracted and anxious while she drives herself and Corrine home from school. She announces that she needs “to date God for a while,” because she doesn’t want her disappeared sister, who was religious, to be disappointed in her. This upsets Corrine, who recalls a memory of Lissa putting her head in her lap so Corrine could stroke her hair and feels as if Lissa made a choice to leave her faith behind then. Lissa becomes unable to drive, so they switch drivers in traffic. During the switch Lissa leans into the narrator, who forces herself not to touch her back. The narrator thinks about the night they got their purity rings, and how she found peace in the pastor saying Jesus would be their partner for life, even though she wanted to be cynical. That night, when she hugged Lissa to share her peace, Lissa pulled away and said to leave room for Jesus. Due to bad weather and a tailgating car, they pull into a church parking lot. They go inside and write the names of their disappeared loved ones --Corrine’s mom and Lissa’s sister--to put in the prayer box, but the box is full. Lissa asks the old man at the front desk to pray with them, and the three pray in a circle. Corrine, who always prays with her eyes open, notes that Lissa prays with her eyes open for the first time. The girls sit together on the curb outside. Corrine examines the prayer card she wrote “Mom” on and realizes she might not ever have her own daughter if she and everyone else disappear. Corrine burnes her prayer card with a lighter, then Lissa follows suit.