Summary

Since the novel does not have traditional chapters, page numbers are used to make the location of the content and summaries clearer.

Part I opens with Orlando Zhang (Ory for short) tracking a deer. While he is desperate for food, he panics when he realizes its antlers look like wings and rushes home to his wife, Max, who still remembers him. It is revealed that the Forgetting started two years prior. Anyone who lost their shadows would eventually lose their memories, and whatever they believed to be reality would become true. Max lost her shadow one week prior, and Ory is desperate to stop the amnesia. Unfortunately, he has to go to the dangerous Broad Street in Arlington to scavenge for food, even though Max may forget him at any time. Before he goes, he shows Max a video of...