Summary

Chapter 1 opens in Maine, in the not-too-distant future. It is several years after an event known as the Arrest, in which all electronic devices in the world suddenly stopped working. The narration briefly describes the roads and land of this geographical area.

Chapter 2 introduces the protagonist, who is known as Journeyman. He works as a delivery person for the nearby communities. He travels by cart and horse to a semi-remote area called the Lake of Tiredness. The only resident is Jerome Kormentz, an elderly man who was exiled there for sexually preying on teenage girls.

Chapter 3 briefly interrupts the story to introduce Journeyman’s idea of Time Averaging, which pertains to the fact that one’s view of another person is an average of the person’s varying traits over the years.

In Chapter 4, Journeyman tries to have only a brief visit with Kormentz...