In this chapter, we learn that the protagonist is a young man named Touma, who has just returned from the war in the Middle East. As he is about to leave, he is approached by a woman named Emina, who asks him how he is doing. Touma tells him that he has been working on a story about a pandemic, and Touma asks him if he and Emina are free to go to a party that night. The protagonist says that he knows that the party will not take place until 3 a.m., which is when the pandemic is supposed to begin. He tells Emina that he would have gone to bed that night if he had known that the pandemic was going to begin that day. Emina says that she would have been scared of the pandemic if she had known what it was, and the protagonist agrees that she is.