Lizbeth is studying in a library near her house when she notices a boy watching her. She's sixteen, a high school junior, and she's not used to being singled-out by boys — she doesn't think of herself as a pretty girl. She's disappointed when the boy packs up his things and leaves the library, but she is shocked and delighted to find him waiting for her outside when she leaves. The boy introduces himself as Desmond Parrish, and he walks with Lizbeth as she heads to her family's home in Strykersville, New York. Desmond asks for her telephone number and address. Desmond starts showing up unannounced at Lizbeth's house and school. Lizbeth's mother is stunned, because Lizbeth has never brought boys home, and Desmond is so intelligent and put-together. Lizbeth and Desmond spend hours talking on Lizbeth's back deck while her dog Rollo lolls at their feet. Lizbeth's mother is eager to have Desmond and his parents over for dinner, but Desmond behaves strangely secretive whenever she mentions this. Desmond and Lizbeth spend many hours together in Fort Huron Park. One day, Lizbeth suggests they rent a rowboat together, and Desmond becomes shaken and ashen. Desmond brings his Polaroid with him everywhere and takes constant photos of Lizbeth. When Lizbeth's older sister Kristine meets Desmond, she immediately distrusts him. There's something not right about him, she says. Plus, though Lizbeth calls him her boyfriend, Kristine thinks he's gay and older than he claims to be (nineteen). One afternoon, Desmond is playing his violin on Lizbeth's deck when he tries to convince Lizbeth to learn the instrument as well. When she expresses her lack of interest in the activity, Desmond keeps pushing her, until he is standing over her, squeezing her arm, yelling. Lizbeth's mother appears, and she and Lizbeth are both shaken as Desmond leaves. In the following weeks, Desmond stops visiting Lizbeth, but Lizbeth sees him everywhere, standing at a distance, watching her. She even finds an ominous note in her school locker telling her she can't shut him out of her life, that they are soul mates. One night, Lizbeth's dog Rollo disappears. Desmond sends Lizbeth an envelope full of photographs of herself, taken with a zoom lens. And then, one day after school, Desmond is waiting for her. He tries to convince her to come with him in his car, but she keeps resisting until he pins her to his car as she squirms. A teacher sees them from a distance and yells, and Desmond jumps in the car and drives away. Late that night, Desmond is on the news: he's been found dead, his car driven into a concrete overpass. A detective comes to visit Lizbeth and her family, and informs them that Desmond had actually been twenty-two years old, and had been incarcerated from ages fourteen to twenty-one for killing his little sister while they were canoeing on a lake. As for Lizbeth's dog Rollo, he never re-appears.