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Chapters 1-3
Mack is the main character and starts off the book by telling about his life and how he never had a good relationship with his father. He was abused and he also talks about getting through the struggle of it. Mack lives in Oregon, and one winter day he goes out to get the mail and recieves a letter. Now in the present, Mack takes his children to go camping. While they were there, his kids got into a canoe accident. They got out safe, but afterwards his daughter, Missy, goes missing. -
Chapters 4-7 (Part 1)
Ubable to find Missy, Mack and the police spend days searching for her. The police tell Mack that the man that kidnapped her is called "The Little Ladykiller" and that they have never found any of the girls he had kidnapped. Mack and his wife try to deal with the kidnapping, but they sink into a deep depression that they call "The great Sadness". -
Chapters 4-7 (Part 2)
Mack goes back to the letter he got in the mail which reads from "Papa" and decides he should meet this person at the shack. He takes his friends car to the shack, even though he is told not to. When he gets there, he meets three people claiming to be forms of the father, son, and holy spirit. -
Chapters 7-10
Mack starts to ask questions and tries to find out how god does what he does. He wakes up one day thinking that it had all been a dream. All he wanted to know was why his daughter had to die. Mack talks to sarayu,who says she creates good and evil, and that all humans are good. Mack and Jesus (disguised as a mexican worker), walk across a lake, and he is told that someone is waiting for him to follow the path. -
chapters 11-14
Mack meets Sophia, and he sees that he is judging god and trying to make decisions for himself. Sophia lets Mack see Missy, and let him know that she was okay. Jesus tells Mack that he neds to keep him close, and he goes back to the shack to talk to Papa. He goes back to thank Sarayu for letting him see Missy. -
chapters 14-18 (part 1)
Now mack thinks that he should not have to do certain things to make god love him. He is taken to the Festival of Friends where he got to see people for who they are and ended up forgiving his dad for abusing him. Then he goes on a hike and starts to trust god. God also tells mack that he needed to forgive the man that took his daughter. Mack was taken to where his daughter's body was. On his way back home from the shack he got into a car accident. -
chapters 14-18 (part 2)
After the accident hetold his wife everything that had happened to him over the weekend and told the police where missy's body was. They found missy's body in a cave, and the evidence helped the police put the "little Ladykiller" in jail.