Summary

The novel begins with Chapter One in Maddie’s first person perspective saying, “In African culture - Wait, no, I don’t want to be presumptuous or in any way nationalistic enough to assume Ghanaian customs run true in other countries” (1). She explains in her family “I was raised to keep family matters private” (1). She says her parents sleep in separate bedrooms and her mother is abroad for a long time every year, but they keep it to themselves.

Maddie describes her daily routine, and her home where she lives with her parents. She prepares her father’s lunch, then hears her father’s carer Dawoud enter. She tries to tell her father about breakfast, but knows he will not remember. She explains his Parkinson’s disease, his poor memory, and his shaking. She retells the day he got lost in their neighborhood...