Each chapter opens with a header that identifies the geographical location and the season (or node, in the book’s vernacular) in which the chapter is set. Chapter 1 is set in the Saltwater Flats and is told from Kora Ko’s perspective on Day 15 of the node “Summer Begins.”

Kora stands atop the Woodward Building, where her Uncle Wai has cultivated a rooftop garden to grow potatoes and other crops to feed the Ko family. The Saltwater Flats, where the Ko family lives, are ruled by HöST Light Industries, a technology company run by despot inventor Isabelle Chow. The Ko family is comprised of Charlotte (Kora’s mother), Uncle Wai (her uncle), and K2 (her brother). In the book’s opening pages, Kora speaks to Delphine, her beloved pet goat who lives in the rooftop garden. Kora recounts to Delphine all the people in her immediate family who have been infected with the tiger flu: K2, Charlotte, and her other brother Everest, who lives in the Coast Salish Timeplace with Kora’s father, Kai Tak.

The prose describes Kora’s “information scales” as waving gently in the breeze on the rooftop.