The novel opens with a conversation between a young girl and her teacher. The girl asks the teacher if they know each other, and the teacher replies that they do, but that it's because she's feeling "under the weather" . She's not sure if the girl is aware of her father's presence, but she does know that he's the father of the young girl. She tells the girl that she wants to know what she can do to make things right with her father, even if she still has a "worries" about him. The young girl tells the teacher that she has never met the girl before, but when she heard her name, she thought her heart was "about to stop." The teacher tells her that he has a wife, a pregnant wife, and his three-year-old son. When the girl gets home, the boy will be a "big brother" to her. The teacher says that he wants to build a railway in the garden, and that when his wife gets back, he'll be "a big brother." The girl says that she'd like to go buy snacks from the vending machine, but the teacher says he has plenty of snacks at home.