Summary

Part 1 of Chapter I begins with the death of Rain (Chunyu) Yuan, who is George Whyller’s mother-in-law. He has married Phoenix, and Rain was the only member of his wife’s family who lived nearby. Rain and Phoenix have been “inseparable” (2). George goes to the nursing home Rain lived in to collect some things of hers and finds Phoenix there unexpectedly, thinking her to be at work. At home, George cooks dinner and feels “the soul of Rain, lurking about the house” (4). George compares Phoenix’s grief to the grief he felt upon losing Jane, “his first wife” (5).

Part 2 describes how Phoenix and George met in 2004 (the present-day is 2011). George worked as an audiologist, and Phoenix had taken Rain in to see him as a patient because she feared her hearing was going. Performing the exam on Rain, he found himself captivated...