An old woman, the novel’s narrator, confirms that she was once the chef at “Miele” (1), a restaurant named for honey. She contrasts her body with the body of the young girl who asks about her time there and whether she knew that the inhabitants of that country would die. The narrator was an average cook who lived for a year in a country that doesn’t exist anymore.

The narrative flashes back to when the narrator is 29 years old.

That March, the narrator works in England, unable to return to her hometown in California. The border to the United States is closed now that severe smog blocks the sun. The smog has made it impossible to grow most types of food and feed livestock. While in England, the narrator receives a letter that her late mother’s apartment has burned down in Los Angeles; she is liable for expenses from the fire. The restaurant she works at only serves fish and “mung-protein-soy-algal flour” provided by the government (5). She misses the other foods that are no longer available.

The narrator applies for a job as a chef at a research facility in northern Italy on a mountain.