Elizabeth is Missing

Helen is in her 50s, has a teenage daughter named Katy, and works as a gardener. Taking care of her mother, Maud, overwhelms her, and she’s constantly adjusting as Maud’s condition worsens.

Helen returns the items her mother takes from the grocer’s without paying, cleans up the cold tea cups that her mother forgets to drink, vacuums Maud’s house, takes her out shopping, picks her up to the police station, takes her out for meals, takes her to the doctor’s, and takes her to visit her father’s grave. At times, Helen resents that she is Maud’s primary caregiver while her brother, Tom, visits once a year from Germany and has no part in Maud’s daily care.

When it becomes clear that it is no longer safe for Maud to live alone, Helen moves her mother out of the home she’s lived in her whole life and into the house Helen shares with her own daughter. In the final chapter, Helen assists Maud with her most important task, solving the mystery of what happened to Sukey.

Sukey is Maud’s older sister. She is a bit of a flirt who loves lipstick, jewelry, perfume, and fashionable clothing. She has a tender heart and takes an interest in a young man named Douglas who delivers milk to the canteen where she works. She met her husband, Frank, at a dance and told Maud the night she met him that she would marry him someday.

Sukey is afraid of the stuffed birds in a glass dome displayed in their sitting room and of the neighborhood mad woman. As it turns out, she should have been afraid of Frank. 

Frank is Sukey’s husband. He’s a handsome, well-dressed man known for doing favors for everyone in the neighborhood. He’s also a drinker and petty criminal with a bad temper.

After Sukey’s disappearance, he becomes increasingly disheveled. He begs Maud to help him remember Sukey. Sukey is drawn to Frank because he’s a link to her missing sister. She also thinks he may hold the key to Sukey’s disappearance. 

Maud’s family takes Douglas in as a lodger after a bomb dropped on his house. He works as a milkman and first met Sukey while she was working at a canteen for servicemen. He loves to use American slang and loves listening to records. It is suggested that he is in love with Sukey.

When Maud notices that Douglas has been lying about his whereabouts and sneaking food out of the house, she starts to suspect that he may have something to do with Sukey’s disappearance.

Maud notices that Douglas is capable of anger after discovering that he’d smashed Sukey’s favorite records. Maud is the target of his anger when he yells at her for wearing Sukey’s clothes and spending time with Frank.