Summary

Chapter 1 is set entirely on a plane travelling from Paris to Newark. Narrated in the third person, the chapter relates the conversation and thoughts of Jim Kripps and Tessa Berens, a married couple returning to New York from a vacation in Paris. The preface reads, “words, sentences, numbers, distance to destination” (2).

The novel starts as Jim Kripps adjusts his seat to the upright position and finds himself staring at the screen in front of him, which displays information about the flight such as the altitude and the distance to destination. He begins to read this information aloud.

Sitting next to Jim is his wife Tessa. Throughout their conversation, she is focused on writing down everything she can remember from their trip to Paris. Jim tries to get a reaction from her by reading the information aloud, but she does not respond at first and...