Tony, a historian, remembers Zenia, a woman from her past who is an enigma and “a bad business” (4). Zenia left unpleasant memories, and Tony longs to unravel the puzzle and clarify her own history. She remembers a starting point: 1990. She dines at Toxique with her friends Roz and Charis when Zenia, long thought dead, reenters their lives. 

Tony rises in the morning and climbs out of bed. West, her partner, is still sleeping, and Tony is grateful for his presence. She heads to her study to grade papers for an hour and to catch a glimpse of the sunrise. Her study, a bright, tropical décor chosen by Roz contrasts with the more academic setting of books bursting from shelves and papers littering the floor. She makes tea and brings a cup to West, a “frangible” partner “subject to breakage” (10).

Tony makes breakfast, half expecting Zenia to come back from the dead: “[…][A]ll that malign vitality must have gone somewhere” (11). This is an odd precognition for the eminently logical Tony.