The novel opens with the protagonist, Lo, waking up in the middle of the night to her cat, Delilah, jumping on her chest. Lo is hungover and confused. She assumes at first that she forgot to shut the door, letting the cat in, but when she looks up, her bedroom door is shut tight. Confused and anxious about how her door could be shut, she reassures herself that she must have shut Delilah in on accident, and then fallen asleep with the cat under the bed. Lo puts on a robe and opens her bedroom door, only to come face to face with a masked intruder standing in her flat.

The man is wearing all black, including a face mask, and is entirely unrecognizable. Lo is disturbed by his latex gloves, which indicate to her that he is a professional. For a moment, Lo and the intruder stand face to face, before the man in black slams the bedroom door in Lo's face. She feels a sharp pain and realizes she is bleeding from where the door hit her cheek. Terrified of the man, she listens on the other side of the door as he rummages through her belongings.