The prologue begins from Soline’s point of view in Boston in 1976. Soline brings out a box from her closet and examining its contents. Inside the box is a dress, a stack of letters, and a brown leather case filled with toiletries from a person named Anson, initials A.W.P. She describes the practice of going through these items as a ritual. As Soline holds the dress up to her body and looks in the mirror, she is reminded of the girl she used to be before Adolf Hitler came to Paris and how much her life has changed since. She goes through the items in the shaving kit—a comb, shoehorn, shaving brush, and cologne flask—and remembers the man who gave her the items. She does not read the letters tonight but packs all the items under tissue paper. The prologue ends with Soline saying goodbye to Anson.

The novel opens with 23-year-old Rory Grant waking up on a Sunday morning and preparing to meet her mother. She is prepping herself for being grilled with questions about her hobbies, education, and plans for the future. She stayed up late reading a romance novel and neglected her mail and messy home for another night, content to be lost in “other people’s happy endings” (5).