Summary

The prologue introduces the setting: Cyprus. The narrator fled Cyprus, their home, many years ago and moved to England. They recall the Cyprus being beautiful, despite the soldier-lined partition that divided its capital, Nicosia, in two. The narrator describes a well by a hill where an antique watch lies with the following inscription: “Arriving there is what you are destined for, But do not hurry the journey at all” (12). On the back of the watch it says “Y & Y” (12).

Chapter 1 takes place in England during the late 2010s. Sixteen-year-old Ada Kazantzakis is sitting in history class. It is nearly the Christmas holidays. Ada’s Turkish mother died a year before. Her Greek father, Kostas, is obsessed with his job; he is an evolutionary ecologist and botanist. During class, Ada’s elbow-mate Emma says that she cannot stand their...