Summary

Chapter One opens with Kate Battista gardening. The phone rings and by the time she gets inside, the answering machine has picked up. She grabs the phone and it is her father asking her to bring him his lunch because he forgot it. Because he forgets his lunch frequently, Kate finds it odd that he has requested that she bring it. She decides to walk, instead of taking the car, to make him wait. On her walk, she overhears conversations of girls, likely students at Johns Hopkins, talking about boys. She arrives and her father introduces her to his research assistant, Pyotr Cherbakov. Dr. Battista mispronounces Pyotr’s name and Pyotr corrects him. Kate gives her father his lunch and tells him to be sure to bring home the box. Pyotr comments that Kate’s directness reminds him of the women in his...