Summary

Part One, titled “Love Like the Ocean,” begins with six crows repeating a Haisla word to the first-person narrator, Lisa, as she emerges from sleep. The narrator is unsure of the word's translation, but what comes to mind is the phrase "Go down to the bottom of the ocean" (1). It is late summer, a breeze is coming up the channel and, through her window, the narrator can see seal heads bobbing out in the bay. The narrator, whose name we find out is Lisamarie, named after Elvis Presley's daughter, then recounts the events of the past 24 hours, going from the present tense into the past tense. The Coast Guard called the previous night with news about her younger brother, Jimmy, who was out fishing on a boat called Queen of the North that had presumably sunk.

Lisa's parents plan...