Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, illness, and death by suicide.

It is June 2007. A young woman named Maia D’Aplièse is on vacation in London, England. Maia, who works as a book translator, lives on Lake Geneva in Switzerland with her adoptive father, whom she calls Pa Salt. Their home, nicknamed “Atlantis,” is a large mansion on the shore of the lake, accessible only by boat.

Maia receives a call from Pa Salt’s long-term employee, Marina, who explains that Pa Salt died after suffering a heart attack. Marina is like a mother to Maia and her five sisters; they call her “Ma.” Maia promises to reach out to her sisters and books a ticket on the next flight home. She was close to Pa Salt and feels guilty that she was away from home—for the first time in years—when he died. She sends messages to her sisters, asking them to call her when they can.

Christian, another employee of their family, picks Maia up at the boat launch in Geneva and takes her home across the lake. While on the boat, Maia reflects on the nickname “Pa Salt,” the name she called her father when she was a girl because he loved to sail and often smelled of salt when he returned home.