In the prologue, we are introduced to the narrator, Jean-Dominique Bauby, who writes from a first-person point of view. He opens by describing his awakening at the break of day. He relays, “My heels hurt, my head weighs a ton, and something like a giant invisible diving bell holds my whole body prisoner” (3). He then surveys his room as it emerges from the waning darkness. He reveals that he has been confined to his bed for the past six months, and that his life as he knew it was “snuffed out” on Friday, December 8th of the previous year.

Bauby explains that a massive stroke, which he terms a“cerebrovascular accident”, has grievously injured his brain stem (4). Somewhat sardonically, he muses that, in the past, such a massive stroke simply resulted in death—but given the advances in medical technology that characterize the age in which he lives, he has survived. He has survived with “locked-in syndrome”. The syndrome leaves him completely paralyzed save for his ability to blink his left eyelid. He is unable to speak or move, but his mind is completely intact. Essentially, he is a prisoner in his own body.