The first lines of the book are: “Who am I? And how, I wonder, will this story end?” (2). The 80-year-old narrator describes the room of the nursing home he is in and then says that his life has had more good than bad. “I am nothing special. Of this I am sure” (3), but because he loved someone else, everything has been worth it. The story he is about to tell is, in his opinion, both a love story and a tragedy. He coughs frequently and says that “there is a sickness rolling through my body” (4).

Someone is crying in a room down the hall. He talks with two other residents briefly, then goes into the room with the crying woman and sits in his regular chair. The orderlies have just finished dressing her. Noah knows that “[s]he doesn’t know who I am. I’m a stranger to her” (5). He takes out a notebook so he can read to her. He says he does this because he believes in miracles: “There is always a moment right before I begin to read the story when my mind churns, and I wonder, ‘Will it happen today?’” (6).