Summary

In Part 1, Chapter 1, the story opens in September of 2017. The narrator—a middle-aged woman who works as a writer—arrives in an unspecified town. She is there to visit a friend. The friend is a woman who is close to the narrator in age. The friend has been diagnosed with cancer and has been undergoing treatment. While in town, the woman stays in a home she found on Airbnb. After visiting her friend in the hospital, the narrator feels tired and distracted. Her mind wanders to thoughts of womanhood and aging. At a university in town, a well-known intellectual is scheduled to give a public lecture. The narrator attends the lecture. The central premise of the lecture is that humanity has doomed itself by failing to address climate change. The man is a very capable public speaker, but his words and tone are quite...