The narration changes to Kit’s point of view. He recalls his early childhood in a verdant village near Lyon. After his family moved to California, his mother soothed his homesickness by baking French pastries with him. He remembers seeing Theo for the first time and thinking that she was more vibrant than anything else in the desert, like a superbloom. He loved her even before he knew what love was.

Shortly before Kit and Theo’s breakup, Kit visits his Uncle Thierry, who lives in a Parisian pied-à-terre that has been in his mother’s family for generations. Thierry intends to sell the apartment because he is going to live with his girlfriend in Portugal, and he is overjoyed to learn that the place can stay in the family because Kit is moving to Paris. Thierry hopes that Theo will be joining Kit, and he answers, “I haven’t told her yet. But I have a plan” (201).

The novel moves four years forward in time. With Maxine’s encouragement, Kit decides to go on the culinary tour. He plans to throw an unsent letter to Theo into the sea at the tour’s stop in Palermo and then spend the rest of his life pining over her.