“The paper is clean and white—she hasn’t drawn her first line—so when the drop of blood falls and makes its little red mark on the page, she freezes.”

The novel opens with the image of a woman inexplicably bleeding in a marketplace in Siam—introducing elements of mystery and urgency. Aubry reacts to the nosebleed with calm resignation, which only deepens the mystery, pulling the audience into the narrative while withholding explanation for two entire chapters.

“The next morning, heading off to school, it was at the edge of her yard, where the front walk meets the street, as if it had been waiting for her all night.”

Aubry tells the Holcombes how she became ill, starting with the puzzle ball she found. She explains that she threw the ball into a nearby park only to find it waiting for her in her front yard the following morning. This moment makes clear that the ordinary laws of reality will not always apply in this novel’s fabulist world, while also hinting at the significance of the puzzle ball itself, which represents Aubry’s call to adventure.

“But Aubry was a terror. She might have been the prettiest, but she was also the most stubborn and the most proud. Everything they had—the house, the furniture, the orgy of food on porcelain plates—she took for granted.”

Aubry’s parents view Aubry as a spoiled, selfish, insolent child. Even her sisters believe that her refusal to throw the puzzle ball into the well is a selfish act that leads to the neighbor’s baby’s death. Aubry herself echoes this indictment, believing that she has earned the punishment of her sickness even though she was only a nine-year-old girl at the time.