Speaking in the first person, protagonist Sarah Nickerson opens the novel by saying, “I think some small part of me knew I was living an unsustainable life” (2). She explains that a little voice inside her head occasionally whispered to her to slow down, that she could not continue her level of activity. This subconscious realization even made its way into her dreams, which she remembered after her accident. She thinks that her dreams were trying to wake her to reality, that they were like messages from God that she chose to ignore. “I guess I needed something less fleeting and more concrete” (2). She comments that she got that, in the form of a literal smack to the head.

Sarah dreams that she is competing in a reality-TV show. Her son Charlie vies for her attention and impedes her progress. She builds a raft, but there is only room for one of them as wolves attack, so Sarah sends Charlie off and the wolves devour her.

Sarah wakes to the sound of her nine-month-old son Linus crying at 5am.