Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of pregnancy loss.

The narrator remembers stories from the start of her relationship with her husband and the prior era, toggling between the past and present tense. She remembers the first time she traveled on her own. She went to Paris, ate at restaurants, visited parks, and rode trains. She remembers the people from Canada, France, England, and Australia she met while there. She also recalls the rainy weather and all the sights she saw.

The narrator recalls a night she spent in her “old apartment in Brooklyn” (5). She felt panic being in this space but didn’t know how to alleviate it.

When the narrator was living alone in Brooklyn, she worked as a fact checker for a science magazine. She didn’t like the work, but she loved where she lived. She had ideas of her own, too. She pinned inspirational quotations on her wall and planned to develop her artistic practice. She didn’t want to get married because she wanted to focus on her writing. She spent time with her friend the philosopher, partying and drinking. Around this time, her ex-boyfriend resurfaced in her life, visiting Brooklyn from San Francisco.