Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, racism, gender discrimination, pregnancy termination, and addiction. 

Satsuki is a pathologist who is traveling from Japan to Bangkok for the World Thyroid Convention. She experiences uncomfortable hot flashes on the flight and thinks about how few people concern themselves with the effects of menopause. She wonders if modern medicine has made human problems worse. A flight attendant announces a request for a doctor, and Satsuki hesitates to volunteer. She remembers past incidents when male physicians on a flight belittled her qualifications to provide medical attention. After a pause, she presses her call button.

In Bangkok, Satsuki stays with friends from Detroit where she had formerly worked for 10 years in the university hospital. Three years ago, Satsuki finalized a messy divorce from her husband, who had an alcohol addiction and an extramarital affair. He blamed her for not wanting to have children. Shortly after the divorce, her car was vandalized with a racist slur. Exasperated with her life in America, Satsuki moved to Japan, where she works at a university hospital in Tokyo.

After the conference, Satsuki remains in Thailand for an extra week for a vacation. Her friend in America, a reporter with many contacts in Southeast Asia from his time covering the Khmer Rouge, made all the arrangements for her stay at a resort north of Bangkok.