O’Brien begins his novel with the description of a couple arriving at a lake in the woods. The couple is in search for solitude and they try to bond with one another. One of the characters recently lost the primary election and to cheer themselves up, they talk about possible baby names. The woman, Kathy, dreams of going to Verona and her companion, John Wade listens to her patiently.
The two spend six nights at the cabin when the narrator reveals that in 36 hours, Kathy will disappear. John is crushed by his loss and at 41 years old he feels as if his life was over. While on the outside John seemed calm and collected, on the inside he is having violent thoughts.
The book is unique in the idea that it presents both events from the past and from the future. The main action takes place in the present and it follows John as he tries to deal with his wife’s disappearance. At the same time, the narrator presents details about the main character’s past, about his childhood, time spent in Vietnam and his career in politics. At the same time, it presents hypothesis regarding Kathy’s disappearance and the possibility that maybe she was killed by her husband.
John is the main character in the book, a man with a troubled past who grew up to become a politician. John’s father was an alcoholic and from the way he talks about his family it can be understood that his mother was absent in his childhood. John’s father was a skilled manipulator and so everyone liked him, thinking that he was a good man. In reality, he used to bully his son and to make fun of him for being fat. John manifested an interest in magic from his childhood and he was bought magic tricks with which he practiced with. Despite this, John never was a popular kid and never really found his place. When he was a young teenager, his father killed himself and the event affected John greatly.
The narrative then moves to the time when John was a young man in collage. While there, he saw Kathy and he felt in love with her. Instead of approaching her, John watched her from afar for a while, learning her schedule and her habits. When he does approach her, she is amazed to see that they have so much in common so they begin to date. Things progress and when John proposes to Kathy, she accepts. It is also around that time when John decides he wants to become a politician and he tells Kathy about his dreams.
The narrative then moves to the time when John was a young man in collage. While there, he saw Kathy and he felt in love with her. Instead of approaching her, John watched her from afar for a while, learning her schedule and her habits. When he does approach her, she is amazed to see that they have so much in common so they begin to date. Things progress and when John proposes to Kathy, she accepts. It is also around that time when John decides he wants to become a politician and he tells Kathy about his dreams. Kathy is scared that John will enter politics for the wrong reasons but John assures her that he will try to do good and help the people. Kathy however has its doubts and she also begins to be spooked out by John’s stalking tendencies.
In 1967, John decided to get enrolled in the army and go to war. Kathy fears that the only reason why John wants to go to war is to build a political career but he insists that he wants to help his country. John is well liked by his fellow soldiers because he performs magic tricks for them and soon he becomes known as the Sorcerer. John writes home to Kathy frequently but as the months pass by, she becomes more distant and John thinks that she may be having an affair. John begins wishing that he were home so he could spy on her and see what she was doing.
On the battlefield, more soldiers die and the ones left alive begin to lose their hope. When John captures a sniper, the other soldiers take revenge on him and hang him so the other Vietnamese soldiers can see him. John also becomes increasingly unstable and one night he kills an American soldier. He refuses however to admit what he did and claims instead that it was an accident, a reflex.
One day, the American soldiers stumble upon a village called Thuan Yen. The soldiers begin shooting everyone, unarmed villagers, children and women. The soldiers raped young girls and women and they even built a pit where they dumped the body of those they killed. The vast majority of the soldiers showed no remorse in killing unarmed villagers and John remembers killing a man as well, a man he thought was caring a gun. The soldiers left the village as if nothing happened and they all tried to put the event behind them.
After Thuan Yen, John decided to remain for one more year in the army. After he was wounded, he was but to work in a bureau where he had access to the soldiers’ papers. In his time spent there, John tried to change the papers to seem as if he was never in the team that massacred the village.
When John returns home, he spends a little time spying on Kathy and John reaches the conclusion that she may be cheating on him. Despite this, John marries Kathy anyway and they move together into an apartment. John begins law school and after he passes his bar exam he begins working as an assistant legislative counsel. In 1976, John expresses his wish to run for the Minnesota State Senate and asks Tony Carbo for help. John wins and he is in the Senate for six years, time during which he gains a reputation as being a skilled politician and a charming man. Tony becomes more interested in Kathy but admits that he is probably not handsome enough for Kathy.
In 1982, Kathy gets pregnant but John urges her to have an abortion even though she wanted to have a child. After Kathy has the abortion, they never talk about the incident again. The relationship between the two becomes tenser and John distances himself from Kathy. Despite this, he is afraid of losing her. It is hinted that Kathy may have had an affair during that time but nothing is certain. Kathy and John have sexual intercourse more rarely. John tries to warn Kathy that something is wrong with him but she refuses to acknowledge it and ignores John when he starts having nightmares and begins screaming in his sleep.
In 1986, John announces his candidacy for the US Senate but the working relationship between him and Tony are not what they used to be and Tony hints that he may know some things John would rather keep hidden. In the end, the reason why John lost the candidacy was because the truth about happened in Vietnam came to light.
Despite John loosing, Kathy is happy to have her husband back and they decide to go and stay for a while in a cabin given to them by a fellow politician named Claude. They begin thinking about having children and discuss having children. Then ,one morning, John wakes up to see that Kathy disappeared.
The day before, Kathy and John woke up and went for a swim in the lake. Then, they spend some time inside with Kathy doing crosswords. In the afternoon, the two went for a drive and went to eat out. While they were out, they had an argument which was seen by a waitress. When the two returned home, John started drinking and Kathy went to sleep. John went to sleep as well but he woke up soon after and went to put the kettle on the stove. Then, he dumped the water on a plant, killing it and went into the bedroom where he saw Kathy sleeping. After that, John claims that he didn’t remembered what happened.
Despite realizing that Kathy is gone, John didn’t suspect anything in the beginning. He went on with his day until 6 PM when he goes out looking for her. When he doesn’t find her, he returns home expecting to see Kathy there. When he realizes that Kathy is not home, he begins drinking to calm his nerves. John then goes to the boathouse and sees that the boat is missing. Worried, John goes to his car and he goes to see Ruth Ramsussen. Ruth’s husband, Claude drives John back to his home where he remains with him for a while, drinking rum. They drink until 2 AM when John suggests that they go searching the lake but Claude tells him that because of the weather it is pointless.
The next morning after Kathy’s disappearance, the County Sheriff Art Lux comes to help look for Kathy. He sets his headquarters at the Texaco station where he meets Vinny Pearson and together to go to speak with John. While Lux remains calm and collected, Vinny is more inclined to lose his calm and it becomes clear that he has a grudge against John as a result of his actions in Vietnam. After Lux and Vinny leave, Claude and Ruth remain behind and John goes to take a nap. That night, John calls Kathy’s sister, Patricia, to tell her what happened and Patricia promises to be in Lake in the Woods the next day.
After two days, Kathy is still missing and Pat arrives at the Lake in the Woods. John tells her everything he knows and they go on a walk after Pat takes a shower. Pat tells John that both he and Kathy have had affairs but John refuses to admit that he cheated in his wife. He also denies being implicated in the Vietnam massacre but Pat refuses to believe him. Pat also tells John that Kathy was scared of him especially after he began screaming in his sleep. When they return home, John asks Claude for a boat so he could go and look for Kathy himself. That night, John spent his time drinking and thinking about Kathy. He thinks that maybe Kathy woke up when he went into the room with the kettle and then he begins feeling guilty.
Pat, John and Claude all board a boat and search for Kathy on the lake. After searching the whole day, they stumble upon Vincent and Lux on an island around a campfire. The search continues for two more weeks but nothing comes up. The weather gets worse and it begins snowing so the police calls off the search for Kathy. Lux calls Claude to tell him that John is a suspect and that the police will be digging up around his property in case John killed Kathy and buried her there.
Meanwhile, John tries to convince Claude to give him a boat so he could continue looking for Kathy. John, Pat and Claude continue looking for Kathy a few more days but then one day, Claude leaves the keys to a boat and an envelope on the table for John. He then gets some supplies and warm clothing and leaves the cabin where he stayed with his wife behind. The letter advices John to go to Canada and start over .
Another part of the novel present possible hypothesis regarding with what happened to Kathy. Some believe that Kathy took the boat, had an accident and drowned but Pat claims that her sister was a talented swimmer and it wouldn’t be likely that Kathy drowned. John presents his own hypothesis, thinking that maybe Kathy took the boat and got lost while on the lake. Then, she must have run out of fuel and then stop on an island and wait for help to come. Other suggest that maybe Kathy ran away with a secret lover but that she was too scared to tell John that she was leaving him. Another hypothesis is that John killed Kathy by dumping boiling water on her and dumping her body in the lake. Some however think that Kathy ran to Canada and that John followed her and that they were living together in Canada. The novel ends with the narrator admitting that there is no way of knowing what really happened with the two.
