Nora works at the Karl Marx Museum in Trier and is the organizer of the Umami Festival. She is outside the museum putting up “cancelled” notices over the poster because Tenzo, the keynote chef giving the talk, claims to be stuck in Oslo due to political turmoil disrupting flights. An older man approaches and begins speaking to Nora, asking her about the festival and expressing his opinion that political unrest in Oslo is unlikely. She manages to ignore him, but his doubts about Oslo make her suspicious of Tenzo.

Roughly a month before the festival, Nora walks through the Kaiserthermen alone. She is lonely and hopes that the walk will spark her imagination and improve her mood. As she walks, she hears whimpering and finds a young man on the ground with a sprained ankle. He introduces himself as Tenzo, and as she watches him, unable to discern where he is from by his appearance, she creates a backstory for him. He looks foreign but speaks perfectly fluent German, which only adds to her confusion. He refuses to go to the hospital although he cannot put weight on his ankle, so Nora brings him home to her apartment, where he offers his shirt to her to use as a bandage for his injury.