Cece is a typical, playful four-year-old girl when the novel begins. She likes to wear a polka dot bikini, play with her mother’s make-up, watch TV, and sing. One day, she becomes unexpectedly ill. Her parents rush her to the hospital, where we see their harried thoughts in the background of the image: “Please hurry…don’t miss the turn…so much worse please please…dear god…” (2). After doing tests, the doctor diagnoses Cece with meningitis. Doctors take her blood regularly and frequently measure her head to test for brain swelling. She eventually begins to recover, though she notices she isn’t experiencing the world the same way—the TV, for example, “doesn’t make any sense” (6). Cece finally gains the strength to walk and can return home. Her siblings, Ashley and Sarah, are uncommonly kind, preparing scavenger hunts and watching over her. Cece doesn’t realize she can’t hear until she loses sight of her mother one day and doesn’t hear her call. 

Cece loves to wear her bathing suit but is forced to put on real clothes. Her parents take her to the audiologist, where she undergoes several strange tests, like listening to a large bell ring while she is blindfolded and performing a hearing test in a sound booth.