Part III: Lave Tete; Chapters 1-2 Summary

This first chapter opens with Avey, who had collapsed into bed exhausted after her night of purging emotions the night before, dreaming that she smells a baby who needs changing, back in the Halsey Street house. She steps groggily into the sunlight and is startled awake, remembering where she is. She surveys the mess she had made in her fit of purging clothing and baggage, and notes that her mind is now as empty as her emptied purse; "a tabula rasa upon which a whole new history could be written." She surveys her body, remembering the moments of her life that have marked it, and dresses in a dress more casual and comfortable than she has worn in years. Soon she is on the beach, captivated by the sand and the coconut trees...