Summary

Ester, a maid at a hotel, sits at the hotel bar contemplating the cleanliness of her glass and the heaviness of her makeup. Her upper arms are bruised and right above her left breast, she has a tattoo of a rose "fully open, the petals loose and beginning to drop" (22). A lone man sits at the bar, a few meters away from her. Ester believes his body is in the shape of a question mark. He drinks coffee and eats a hard boiled egg. Ester recognizes that he is not a guest there, and he says he has come in for breakfast. She notices he has a butterfly tattoo on the back of his hand.

When she gets up from the bar stool, the man silently follows her. The scene transitions to the man lying on his back in bed. Ester is nude and...