Summary

The first chapter, “Present,” begins with an in-depth description of a series of photographs of a fashionable apartment in Berlin. The descriptions go into minute detail about the furnishings, decorations, and household items like tableware. There are wooden floors, copies of the New Yorker, and a lot of plants. The photographs are well lit and expertly taken. The narration suggests that the lifestyle promised by these photographs of this apartment is very appealing. The narration imagines the life that could be lived in this apartment, concluding it is a happy life. At least it appears to be a happy life as viewed through these photographs which have been posted online, offering the apartment as a short-term rental throughout a platform based in California but registered for tax purposes in the Netherlands.

The next chapter, “Imperfect,” begins by stating that the life being lived in...