Eighteen-year-old Zoey is sitting in a cab with her invisible bird, Pigeon, heading toward Mallow Island. She’s going to her new home in Dellawisp Condos, which is on a hidden lane off a busy trade street filled with bakeries and other marshmallow-inspired businesses. When she arrives, she brushes by a bush and a group of small turquoise birds fly out. She meets the building manager, Frasier, who welcomes her to the building. He explains that the building is named after the birds—dellawisps. He takes her to the apartment her mother used to occupy and introduces her to the other occupants. They meet Lizbeth, who is aggressive and confrontational; Charlotte, Mac, and Lizbeth’s sister Lucy occupy the other apartments.

Zoey enters her new home, hoping to find remnants of her mother’s memory. However, everything is empty and austere. Zoey’s stepmother was excited to have Zoey out of the house so she could turn her bedroom into a studio. As she unpacks, Zoey considers what she knows about her mother, Paloma: Paloma and her brother emigrated from Cuba after their grandfather’s death, but only Paloma made it to America alive.