A photo of his mother and a Sowell Bay class ring convince him that his absent father is Seattle real estate developer Simon Brinks. Cameron goes to stay with his childhood friends Elizabeth and Brad and decides to seek out his estranged father. Because he’s unable to hold down a job and lies to her when he gets fired, Katie throws him out. Meanwhile, Cameron Cassmore lives in Modesto with his girlfriend Katie. When she arrives home from meeting the Knit-Wits, she receives a message telling her that her estranged brother Lars has died. Her son Erik’s death was ruled a suicide, but Tova never believed it. She feels disconnected from them because they all have husbands, children, and grandchildren while Tova is alone she lost her son in a boating accident when he was 18 and her husband to cancer some years ago. The two begin an unlikely friendship.Įach week, Tova meets with her friends in a seniors’ social club they call the “Knit-Wits.” The other women express concern over Tova’s job. She helps free him, and Marcellus recognizes that without Tova, he would have died. On one occasion, Tova finds him tangled in knotted cables in the director’s office.

Marcellus has learned how to escape from his enclosure and travels through the aquarium looking for snacks. She enjoys conversing with the aquarium’s octopus, Marcellus-an unusually intelligent creature who speaks directly to the reader about his captive circumstances. Tova Sullivan is the elderly cleaning woman for the Sowell Bay Aquarium.

Content Warning: This novel prominently concerns a death by suicide.

Remarkably bright creatures