And partly because a decade before, Dad had invented a gloriously eccentric weekend side-project. He’d decided to photograph every single bridge over the Thames. I went with him, sometimes, on Saturday mornings, driving up into the Cotswolds. My dad had been my dad, but also my friend, and a partner in crime when it came to quests like this.
-- Helen (Chapter 2 paragraph 6)

Importance: The driving conflict throughout the book is how Helen deals with the grief of losing her father. This passage is importance because it highlights very early on just how strong Helen’s connection was with her father, which explains why she takes his loss so hard.

And the rain continued, burying the streets in half an inch of bubbling water, breaking shop canopies, making the River Cam a café-au-lait surge, thick with broken branches and sodden undergrowth. My city was apocalyptic. ‘I don’t see the weather as odd...
-- Helen (Chapter 2 paragraph 12)