Summary

One March, every adult on the globe received a box outside their door. In the boxes were strings, which told the recipients how long they would live. The boxes’ arrival spurred “fear” and “confusion,” precluding the recipients from understanding the strings’ true meaning (2).

In “Spring,” “Nina,” while checking her phone one March morning, Nina encountered online discussions about the boxes’ arrival. Realizing she and her girlfriend, Maura, must have received them too, she opened her apartment door.

In “Ben,” Ben was flying home from an “architectural conference in San Francisco” the day the boxes arrived (8). On the subway home, he noticed how affected New Yorkers were by the boxes.

In “Nina,” Nina studied her box, afraid to open it. She continued following online discussions about their arrival and provenance. At the magazine where Nina worked, she and “her fellow editors” considered the story...