Summary

Early December on a chilly day, Susie Salmon,14, is walking home from school as usual and taking her normal shortcut through the cornfield when her 36 year-old neighbor, George Harvey stops her in the middle of the field. He lures her into an underground den that he had created. Once down there, he raped and murdered her.

Susie's spirit eventually leaves her dissembled body and enters her Heaven, where she can look down and watch as her family tries to move on from what they thought was an abduction, until her elbow is found. The rest of her body is thrown into a safe which is eventually put into the towns sinkhole by Harvey

At first the Salmon family didn't know that Susie was killed so Jack, her father, conducts his own investigation looking for his daughter. When he sees a flashlight late at night in the cornfield he assumes its Harvey so he follows it. When he encounters the flashlight and the person behind it, he is surprised that its just a teenage couple. The boy of the couple beats up Jack, leading him to needing knee surgery. As he is recovering from this surgery, Susie's sister, Lindsey continues to investigate Harvey.

One day, Lindsey sneaks into Harvey's house while he is gone. As she is upstairs he comes home, she creeps into a spare bedroom. She lays on the floor trying to stay still as she comes upon a floorboard that is loose and looks like it is removed a lot. She lifts it up to find a blueprint to and underground den and some journals. He barges into the room so grabs the blueprint and jumps out the window. When she confronts the authorities about the discovery, they investigate but only to be left with nothing. Harvey is not arrested but he leaves town.

As he returns years later to check up on everything he left behind he meets this woman at a gas station, only to start stalking her. As he realizes that she has no ride he tries to get her to get into his car, stating that it being February it's cold outside. She refuses so he tries to stand in front of her to be more authoritative. She walks away leaving Harvey standing near the edge of the cliff. An icicle falls from a tree, and hits him on the head. This causes him to fall backwards off the cliff, after several hits he dies. The book ends with this and Susie wishing the reader a "long and happy life."