The novel flashes back to a scene four years earlier outside Dallas, Texas. A cowboy driving a Cadillac picks up a young blond hitchhiker. She tells him that she’s going to Los Angeles, California to be an actress. When she leaves him in New Mexico, the cowboy tells her to say hi to Tony Curtis if she ever works with him. When Sharon Tate made her movie debut with Tony Curtis in Don’t Make Waves, she told him, “Ace Woody says hello” (84).

Early on the morning of February 8, 1969, Cliff drives to Rick’s house to pick him up. On the way, he sees four hippie girls crossing the street. The brunette hippie smiles at him and gives him the peace sign, which he returns. Around the same time, Rick wakes up hungover. It will be his first day filming the new Western series called Lancer. However, he drank eight whiskey sours while reading the script the night before, and as he lies in bed that morning, he throws up on himself. Even though no one’s there to see it, Rick hates himself for doing something so humiliating. Years later, he’ll learn that he’s bipolar and experiences extreme emotions, which he attempts to calm by using alcohol to self-medicate.