Content Warning: This guide section contains depictions of racism.

The first prologue opens in medias res, with the narrator being arrested as someone named Kate dies for the third time. The narrator mentions that he’s learned some things about time travel, like not to waste time on clothes. The biggest lesson he’s learned is that “all the time travel in the world can’t save the people you love” (3).

Forty-five minutes earlier, police officers stop Jack King as he tries to enter the emergency room. Handcuffed, he pleads for the police officers to let him see his dying girlfriend for five minutes. They escort Jack to Kate’s room, where he tells her she’s going to be okay and then injects her with a syringe he hid in his shoe. It doesn’t work, and Kate dies, resetting the timeline and jolting Jack painfully into the past.

Jack King considers himself an expert in “almost” because he doesn’t succeed at anything he tries. He doesn’t make the sports teams or extracurricular clubs, nor is he good at any of the hobbies he dabbles in.