Summary

The first chapter is told from the perspective of Nell, a young woman living in Dublin who has recently graduated from college. The chapter begins with Nell pondering the different ways that different people think. She details an experiment done on a woman named Melanie when she was reminded to pause several times a day and write down what she had been thinking about. Nell imagines the difference between what Melanie and her boyfriend were thinking about. Nell remembers a friend from school named Maya who was very sensitive and suffered from severe period pain. In college, Nell had an interest in nature, especially birds and birdsong, which set her apart from her friends, Lily and Mal, who were more interested in politics.

Nell recalls meeting a man named Felim in a bar when he did a party trick of demonstrating that he can...