Frida Lowe watches as her husband, a lineman named Kirby, prepares their Florida home for a hurricane. The approaching storm fills the pregnant woman with anxiety, and she tells her husband that she wants to go further inland. Insulted, he asks, “Why can’t you just trust me?” (13). Frida considers driving off without her husband and her stepsons, Lucas and Flip. Frida and Kirby met a year ago in the aftermath of Hurricane Poppy, which struck San Juan and killed her mother. At the time, his self-assurance drew her to him “like the first glimpse of land after so many days at sea” (17). In quick succession, she became pregnant, decided to keep the baby, agreed to marry Kirby, and dropped out of her graduate architecture program. She now second-guesses these decisions, and Lucas’s undisguised dislike for her increases her desire to leave.

Kirby reflects on how his long work schedule caused his relationship with his sons and his ex-wife, Chole, to deteriorate. He met Frida soon after the divorce, and he knows that his sons’ antagonistic stance toward her is his fault. Early in their relationship, he felt that he and Frida were helping one another grow and heal, but now he feels as though they’re falling apart.