THE STORY The novel, set in the suburban 1970s, tells the story of the five mysterious Lisbon sisters, from the perspective of the neighbourhood boys obsessed with them. As an ambulance arrives for the body of Mary, the final Lisbon suicide, the neighbourhood boys recall the events of the past year. It is June of the previous year; thirteen-year-old Cecilia, the youngest sister, slits her wrists while taking a bath. She is rushed to the hospital and her life is saved. The hospital psychiatrist sees Cecilia’s suicide attempt as a cry for help and thinks she would benefit by having a social outlet outside of school. As a result of the psychiatrist's advice, Mr. Lisbon and Mrs. Lisbon allow the girls to throw a small chaperoned party to which the neighbourhood boys are invited. At the party Cecilia seems oblivious to both her sisters and the boys, and asks to be excused. She ascends to her bedroom, where she jumps out of the window, impaling herself on the iron fence below. She dies instantly. After the tragedy, the neighbourhood boys’ interest in the Lisbon girls only increases. They manage to acquire Cecilia's diary and although they read it out loud obsessively to each other, they can not find an explanation for her death. As summer ends, the Lisbon girls return to school, but keep largely to themselves. Mr. Lisbon, a math teacher, continues teaching with his usual enthusiasm. Lux has several clandestine relationships. Even though, the Lisbon house begins to physically deteriorate as autumn progresses, the girls’ spirits seem to lift. One day, Trip Fontaine, the local stud, enters a wrong classroom where he sees Lux. He falls overwhelmingly in love with her. Via Mr. Lisbon, Trip receives Mrs. Lisbon's permission to take Lux to Homecoming on the conditions that Trip would find dates for the other girls, Therese, Mary and Bonnie; that they would go in a group; and that they would be home by eleven. On the night of the dance, the boys are overwhelmed by the girls volubility. The girls seem to enjoy themselves; Trip and Lux are voted Homecoming King and Queen. After the dance, Trip and Lux are nowhere to be found. The other boys take their dates home. Lux arrives home several hours later, after making love with Trip on the football field, where he abandons her. In response to Lux's breaking curfew, Mrs. Lisbon takes the girls out of school and shuts the house in maximum-security isolation. Several weeks later, the boys begin to see Lux on the Lisbon roof, making love with unknown men. The physical decay of the Lisbon house continues. In January, Mr. Lisbon is fired and in the following months, no one is seen leaving the Lisbon house. Just as the boys begin to feel they have lost the girls completely, notes from the girls begin appearing in the neighbourhood, on of them requesting the boys’ help on midnight of June 15th. The boys fantasize about fleeing with the girls. As they arrive at the Lisbon house as instructed, they find Lux alone in the living room. She instructs them to wait for her sisters there, while she waits in the car. Finally, as no one comes, they go looking for the girls and find Bonnie's body hanging from a beam in the basement. The boys flee from the house. Later, they realize that the girls killed themselves while they were waiting in the living room: Therese by sleeping pills, Bonnie by hanging, Lux by asphyxiation. Mary, who put her head in the oven, is the only one whom the paramedics can save. After the suicides the media descends to the neighbourhood. Although Mary is still alive, the community talks about the Lisbon girls in past tense. About a month later, Mary finally dies by taking sleeping pills. The Lisbon parents sell the house and move away. At the end of the novel, many years later, the neighbourhood boys are still obsessed with the Lisbon girls, and have never been able to recover from their deaths.