The novel's opening scene takes place at a beach camp in Costa Rica, where Costa Ricans are spending the summer. It is the first day of the three-day festival, and the narrator tells his friend, erika, that she has to go to the camp because she does not like the beach. She tells her friend that she will be swimming in the ocean all day, and that she is not her friend because she is in her class. The two girls agree to go, and erika tells the narrator that it is her first year at the festival. She says that she was afraid she would make friends, but that she thinks they will be inseparable. The narrator tells her that she did not know she was going to the festival because she was in her mother's class. He tells her to take a tent with her, and they agree to do so. He says that he does not know why he is at the camp, but he promises that he will show her that there is nothing to see there. He asks her how long it has been since she last saw him, and she tells him that they have not seen each other in three years