In mid-October there was something called Parents' Weekend, where the parents of all freshman were invited to show up and make sure their little darlings were doing all right in their first month or so of college. Bridget's mother and father, Tara and Joe, were scheduled to show up, and everyone was looking forward to meeting them. But when the Friday of Parents' Weekend arrived and there was a tentative knock on Joyce's front door, Hilary found that only one person was there--a woman, presumably Tara.

She was a real beauty--or would have been if there wasn't a kind of spooked expression on her face. She floated into the living...