Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses the novel’s storylines about rape, attempted rape, conversations about sexual assault and violence against women, and drug use.

Ariel Pryce is alone in a Lisbon hotel room looking for her new husband, John Wright. She is seized by a familiar anxiety: “What if she’s wrong about him? About this whole thing?” (3). A timestamp indicates that it is Day 1 and 7:28 am. The counted days mark the duration of John’s disappearance and Ariel’s efforts to find him, which turn out to have wide-ranging repercussions in American politics. The novel plays up the ambiguity of Ariel’s situation by noting that she is groggy due to a sleeping pill John “foisted upon her” (3), but it dispels doubts by emphasizing that the two spent a passionate night together that was entirely consensual. Ariel prepares for the day, reminding herself that the news headlines will involve the confirmation hearings for a new vice president.

Ariel sees headlines about the likely new vice president and reflects that “today is not at all comfortable” (10). Ariel alerts the hotel staff to John’s absence. The third-person narrator comments cryptically that “the absence of clues is in itself, a clue” (13).