The first chapter introduces the main character, John Laroche, and explains how the author came to meet him. Orlean read a short news article about a group of people caught poaching orchids, an endangered and protected flower, in the swamps of Florida. The incongruity of the elements caught Orlean’s eye and she traveled to Florida to attend the court hearing. She first met Laroche at the courthouse in Naples and spent the next two years following him around to research the story. He was accused, along with three others, of illegally removing rare bromeliads and orchids from the Fakahatchee Strand, a part of the Florida Everglades. When the hearing concluded, the judge scheduled the case for February 1995.

Laroche grew up just north of Miami and was always something of a collector. Starting as a child, he would develop an interest in something and collect it fanatically before moving on to the next thing. Among his earlier interests were turtles, fossils, and old mirrors. He and his mother used to go on hikes in the woods, where they looked for orchids. His mother loved them, and he developed an interest in them as well. As a young adult, he opened a nursery with his wife and they became fairly successful in the business.