The prologue takes place almost three years before the main timeline of The Love Hypothesis. Protagonist and main character Olive Smith is on her way to an interview for Ph.D. candidacy in Stanford’s biology program. Though she loves science and doesn’t care about the rigorous life of grad school, she is still “on the fence about this whole grad school thing” (1). Prior to her interview, the expired contacts she wears start to burn, and she flees to the first bathroom she finds, which turns out to be the bathroom used by one of the labs for waste removal.

In the bathroom, an unidentified man asks Olive if she’s all right. Olive says she is and tells him about her contacts, conducting the entire conversation blinded by tears. The man seems appalled Olive used expired contacts. When Olive argues that contacts aren’t cheap, he says eyes aren’t cheap either, to which she has no argument.

The man asks why Olive wants to enroll in Stanford’s biology program. After some back-and-forth, Olive admits she has a burning question that she wants to answer. Something bad happened in her past, and she wants “to do my part so that it won’t happen again” (8).