Content Warning: This guide includes moments of and references to suicide, addiction, abuse, and domestic violence.

Rainier, or Rainy to his friends, lives with his wife, Lark, in Icebridge, a town on the shore of Lake Superior. He’s a bass guitarist, giving lessons to local kids and playing in local bars. She runs a bookstore called Bread. One winter night, Rainy’s friend Labrino stops by to talk. Labrino owns a local bar, often hiring Rainy and his band to play. Like many people, Labrino worries about the world’s declining state, and as he and Rainy talk about the Tashi Comet, due to pass Earth the next year, he predicts doom. He mentions how after Haley’s Comet last passed Earth in 1986, the spaceship Challenger exploded, and then the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl occurred. Rainy pushes back, but Labrino won’t budge and requests Rainy play a song. When Lark returns home, Labrino leaves.

Lark reminds Rainy that they have a boarder coming. The couple rents their attic room to travelers. Many pass through quietly on their way to Canada, where they hope to escape abusive working conditions.