Chapter 4, The Health Resort, Section 1 Summary

It's 1929, and an opera singer named Frau Elisabeth (Lisa) Erdman is traveling from Vienna to Milan to perform in a show. The train stops at small station, and Lisa is surprised when many travelers pile on. Feeling claustrophobic, she leaves her seat and tries to find the bathroom, but the train is too crowded. She finds an open spot by a window next to a young man and sits there. She casually mentions she's a singer and the young man begins asking about her role in the show and admiring her abilities, since she will perform at La Scala, a famous theater. Lisa reveals that she is merely filling in for the master soprano Vera Serebryakova, who has hurt herself. She ask the young man where he is going, and the he tells her that...