Summary

The short opening chapter follows Cora on one of her compulsive nighttime excursions to Troy’s house, where Reyna’s decomposing corpse still lies. Together with Cora’s dreamlike recollections, the chapter’s atmospheric language — “Her fingers trailed behind her, shirring the water that was air” (3) — evokes the flood that destroyed New Orleans and left Cora in the state of post-traumatic shock which she endures for most of the novel.

Immediately thereafter, the reader meets Joe as he drives to Vincent’s nursing home to retrieve his father’s belongings. The reader learns that Joe and Vincent are living separately from Tess in the Boisdoré cabin. While at the nursing home, Joe receives a phone call from a neighbor who has just seen Vincent out walking along the roadside in search of his long-dead dog, Sheba.

The narrative temporarily shifts to Tess as...