Content Warning: Both the source text and this section of the guide contain allusions to historical genocide and depictions of the lasting impacts of colonialism, racism, and sexism.

An unidentified man is walking in the Arctic, nearly frozen and likely on the verge of death. He hears cannon fire in the distance: a signal from his ship.

The unnamed narrator interviews for a top-secret, lucrative position within an arm of the British government called the Ministry. For her sixth round of interviews, she meets with Vice Secretary of Expatriation Adela, a woman with straw-like hair and an eye patch. The narrator knows only that the job involves working with important refugees, so it doesn’t surprise her when Adela asks about her mother’s experience as a Cambodian refugee who fled the Khmer Rouge genocide. When she gets the job, the narrator learns that the Ministry has access to time travel, and she’ll be working with “expats” from history. She’ll be monitoring one closely over the next year as part of a project to study the effects of time travel on expats’ bodies and minds. In this role, she’s called a “bridge.