49 pages • 1 hour read
Freida McFaddenThe Locked Door
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Prologue-Chapter 7Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Prologue Summary
Content Warning: This section contains graphic depictions of violence, allusions to animal cruelty, and mentions of death by suicide.
Twenty-six years before the action of the novel begins, serial killer Aaron Nierling is arrested in his home in Oregon after an anonymous tip leads investigators to discover bones from 17 victims in his basement. He is sentenced to 18 consecutive life sentences in jail. His wife is charged with accessory to murder but dies by suicide before her trial. In the final sentence, the narrator reveals that Nierling is her father.
Chapter 1 Summary
As Nora Nierling (now using the name Nora Davis) sits drinking in a dive bar called Christopher’s, she feels someone watching her. It is the 26th anniversary of her father’s arrest, and she is feeling paranoid. Nora ignores the bartender’s attempts to start a conversation with her despite his good looks and obvious interest. As a surgeon, Nora has little time for relationships, and she likes it that way. She wonders if her father is proud of her career.
Nora is approached by Henry Callahan, a former patient who thanks her profusely for saving his life. Uncomfortable with his attention, Nora tries to leave, but he repeatedly asks her out. When he grows aggressive, the bartender intervenes. Nora takes a note of Henry’s car model and waits for him to leave before she does.
Chapter 2 Summary
As Nora drives home, she realizes that she is being followed. She attempts to lose the car at a fork in the road but is unsuccessful. She wonders what her father would do in this situation, then pushes the thought aside. She decides to pull into a police station, hoping the car will pass. She realizes that it is the same car Henry Callahan was driving away from the bar. Nora knows she should report him to the police, but since her father’s arrest, she cannot bear to be in a police station.
At home, Nora reluctantly feeds a stray cat that has been spending time near her house. She looks up Callahan’s medical records to find his address and realizes he lives only 20 minutes away. Nora receives a letter from her father and throws it away without reading it, as she has with every letter he’s sent from jail.
Chapter 3 Summary: “26 Years Earlier”
Nora and her mother bake a cake for Nora’s 11th birthday. Nora’s mother questions her about the fact that Nora hasn’t invited anyone to her birthday party. Although Nora plays with the same group of girls at lunch every day, she doesn’t talk to them outside of school and doesn’t understand her mom’s concern.
For the past few years, Nora’s father has used the family’s basement as his woodworking workshop. He spends hours alone in the basement, locking the door behind him. Although his work is not good, Nora’s mother insists they support him. A powerful scent of lavender emanates from the door to the basement.
Nora’s father arrives home with her birthday gift: a white mouse. Nora’s mother is visibly concerned because Nora’s previous pet hamsters have died.
Chapter 4 Summary
Nora rushes from surgery to her private practice. She is greeted by the practice assistant, Harper, an attractive woman in her twenties. Nora suspects that her partner, Philip Corey, hired Harper because of her good looks, but Harper is an organized and reliable worker. She warns Nora that her first patient, Arnold Kellogg, is upset that he has been kept waiting.
Nora enters the examination room with a believable but forced smile that she inherited from her father. She notices that Kellogg’s wife has a black eye and suspects he is responsible. Nora wishes she knew he was abusive when she was operating so she could have hurt him during surgery, then rejects the thought. Nora privately asks Kellogg’s wife if he is hurting her, but she denies it.
Chapter 5 Summary
Late that evening, Philip stops in Nora’s office before leaving the practice for the night. He tells Nora that she is working too hard and that she should go out and have fun like him. Privately, Nora is grateful that he is not pursuing Harper after his difficult and contentious divorce. Philip offers to take her out and act as a wingman, but she tells him to stay out of her business. Philip brags that he is winning their private contest to see who can complete the most surgeries in a year.
As Nora leaves, she finds Harper studying a biology book. Harper reveals that she has enrolled in a biology class and hopes to pursue a career in medicine. Nora is thrilled for her. Harper shares that she expects her boyfriend to propose at dinner.
Chapter 6 Summary: “26 Years Earlier”
In the past, Nora and her friend, Tiffany, make fun of their classmate Marjorie, an awkward and overweight loner. Privately, Nora wishes that Marjorie would stand up for herself. She knows that Tiffany and her friends wouldn’t dare make fun of her but believes she’d stand up for herself if they did. After school, Nora secretly follows Marjorie home. She notices that Marjorie’s route takes her past a private, hidden trail and that no one is home when Marjorie arrives. She leaves without anyone seeing her.
At home, Nora hears a noise from behind the locked basement door, but her mother stops her before she can investigate. It is revealed that Nora’s mouse died suddenly. Alone in her room, Nora writes Marjorie’s name on a list and underlines it.
Chapter 7 Summary
Nora drives from her office to the Kelloggs’ home, having obtained their address from medical records. She briefly watches the house, tightly gripping the steering wheel, then leaves. Unwilling to go home to her empty house, she stops at Christopher’s.
She realizes that the bartender who helped her during her last visit is Brady Mitchell, a man she dated briefly in college. Brady has matured significantly, and Nora can’t help being attracted to him. She cannot remember why she broke up with him. Brady reveals that he is in between jobs in the tech industry and bartending to pay his bills. He asks her out, but she rejects him, sure that she cannot handle a real relationship.
Prologue-Chapter 7 Analysis
Although the entire book is narrated by Nora Davis (born Nora Nierling), the narrative moves back and forth between Nora’s adult life and childhood, which introduces the central theme of The Lasting Effects of Childhood Trauma. Freida McFadden distinguishes between adult and child Nora through stylistic choices and tone. As an adult, Nora Davis is a general surgeon who can “sketch out every blood vessel supplying the gut with [her] eyes closed” (12). Adult Nora has been hardened by the trauma of her father’s crimes, saying, “After the things I’ve seen in my life, there isn’t much that can shake me” (16). The tone of her narration is confident and straightforward, reflecting her maturity at the age of 37.
The third chapter of the novel introduces 11-year-old Nora Nierling, and the tone of her narration is intentionally different from adult Nora’s narration. She describes her mom as: “[S]uch a mom. Like if you were reading a book about a mom, she’d probably be like my mom” (26). The lack of concrete references in this passage reflects Nora’s immature perspective, which can’t see far beyond her own immediate experience. Later, child Nora describes her father’s job as a phlebotomist as “really hard to spell” (30), explaining, “[Y]ou would think there is an F at the beginning, but it’s actually a P-H” (30). These deliberate references to child Nora’s ignorance contrast with adult Nora’s intelligence, helping McFadden distinguish the two timelines from one another.
This difference in tone reflects significant character differences between adult Nora and 11-year-old Nora as well. The Prologue and first chapter of the novel introduce Nora as a victim of her father’s crimes. In the Prologue, Nora describes Aaron Nierling as “a narcissist and a psychopath, who likely killed at least thirty women without a trace of remorse” before adding in the final sentence, “he is also my father” (6). The shock reveal that her father “is a monster” presents Nora as the victim of her father’s behavior (6). In Chapter 2, McFadden implies that Nora is traumatized by her father’s actions. The trauma of her father’s violence led Nora to decide that “relationships wouldn’t be a part of [her] life anymore” (10), and she actively rejects opportunities to form connections throughout this section.
Nora’s trauma also manifests in an irrational fear of dealing with the police. Even when she is being followed by an aggressive stranger, the thought of entering a police station makes Nora “physically ill” (20). As she explains, “[A]fter what I went through all those years ago, I never want to go into a police station again” (20). These passages suggest that Nora has been materially harmed by her father’s actions, reflecting the novel’s interest in the long-term effects of childhood trauma.
In Chapter 6, however,11-year-old Nora reveals herself to be more like her father than her adult narration suggests, which introduces the theme of The Tensions Between Nature and Nurture. As she surreptitiously follows her classmate Marjorie home, Nora notices an “uneven trail which is completely empty” and comments that “people don’t hike there much” (48). She also notices that “Marjorie is coming home to an empty house every afternoon” (48). These passages point to Nora’s desire to be alone with Marjorie, foreshadowing that she intends to “do something wrong” (48). In the chapters taking place in the past, Nora’s revealing immaturity shows that she is more like her father than her adult chapters are willing to admit.
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