This chapter introduces most of the major characters as well as the situation they and all of humanity face. The setting is Melbourne, the southernmost major city in Australia. The epigraph preceding the chapter sets the narrative's quiet, desperate tone—signaling that what is to come will involve neither high drama nor violent conflict. All of that is over. The story's participants have been left to silently huddle together on the beach, "the last of meeting places." All of that is over. The radioactive fallout from World War III is spreading steadily south, exterminating life. Yet before towns, cities, or entire countries go dark, the fallout shapes a new reality for those still alive. Following the war, a countdown began that made the remaining time precious, but the waiting can also be painful and tedious. We are delving into themes of spirituality, science, psychology - and history - in a world where it will cease to be be written or read because human kind did not acknowledge control of modern weapons of war.