Alex takes one of her wealthy older boyfriend Simon’s painkillers and goes for a swim in the ocean. The ocean makes her feel like a better person. She gets caught in a riptide and thinks she’s going to drown but saves herself. Alex recently escaped New York City thanks to Simon, who invited her to spend the summer with him at his home in the Hamptons. Her life in the city has fallen apart. Her sex-work clients have dwindled, she’s been flagged at certain restaurants, her roommates have figured out that she’s been stealing from them, and she’s been essentially kicked out of her apartment for not paying rent. Someone called Dom is harassing her with text messages, which she’s ignoring.

Alex was in a desperate situation when she met Simon in a bar by chance, not through her ads. Simon doesn’t know that Alex is a sex worker, nor does he know about any of Alex’s problems in the city. She pretends she has everything together and satisfies Simon’s curiosities about her life by telling him that her family cut her off because she stopped going to church.