Emma Bigelow is in Northumberland where she finds a dead crab. While taking pictures, she experiences dizziness from low blood pressure and passes out, finding blood on her hand when she wakes.

Leo Philber, an obituary writer for a local paper, wakes to find his wife, Emma, checking the breathing of their three-year-old daughter, Ruby. He and Ruby go downstairs, amused by Emma’s singing to the dog, John Keats, an anxious rescue who requires music to keep him calm.

As they make breakfast, Emma discusses Leo’s obituaries with him, praising his skills as a writer while also criticizing him lovingly. At the same time, he asks about Facebook messages regarding a British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) nature program she once hosted that recently ran again. Emma is an intertidal ecologist, studying “places and creatures that are submerged at high tide and exposed at low” (5). He knows she gets disturbing messages there, but she blows it off now, not anxious to discuss it.

Emma has recently been treated for cancer, and they will receive the result of her latest tests in a week. Despite the normal appearance of their morning, both are anxious about their future.