In the ear­ly hours, the pro­tag­o­nist reflects on signs of destruc­tion in Gold, Ontario, hav­ing wit­nessed a sig­nif­i­cant geo­log­i­cal event. He recounts how a once bustling town has become a ghost­ly ruin, not­ed through a vivid imagery of the shore­line and a mut­ed land­scape. The sud­den erup­tion of chaos begins with an ancient dog howl­ing in warn­ing, lead­ing to a col­lec­tive awak­en­ing among locals, marked by strange occur­rences and dis­ar­ray. The nar­ra­tor, aboard a boat, escapes this chaos, men­tal­ly wrestling with the jux­ta­po­si­tion of beau­ty and des­o­la­tion as he sails through the rhyth­mic embrace of the sea, occa­sion­al­ly indulging in moments of soli­tude, rem­i­nisc­ing about Lark, a sig­nif­i­cant fig­ure in his life.

As he con­tin­ues his jour­ney, the tran­quil­li­ty of the waters con­trasts stark­ly with his unset­tling thoughts. A vio­lent storm dis­rupts this peace, forc­ing him to nav­i­gate through a microburst that cap­sizes his boat momen­tar­i­ly, reveal­ing both the fragili­ty of his ves­sel and an inter­nal strug­gle with a mys­te­ri­ous noise that unset­tles him. The next des­ti­na­tion is the town of Jolie, which he approach­es with appre­hen­sion, pon­der­ing its cur­rent state—whether it has suc­cumbed to the same fate as Gold.

Upon arriv­ing, the sense of neglect and aban­don­ment is pal­pa­ble, yet he finds a sem­blance of warmth in a cafe where a friend­ly yet har­ried wait­ress serves him break­fast. News of recent tragedies weighs heav­i­ly on him as he reads about sui­cides and lost hopes, pulling his thoughts back to Lark, who under­stood the depths of despair sur­round­ing them.

In town, the pro­tag­o­nist encoun­ters Ste­vie, a mechan­ic who offers to repair his boat in exchange for music at a ben­e­fit con­cert for a ter­mi­nal­ly ill man named Nils. He accepts, drawn into the local community’s fab­ric while reflect­ing on their shared strug­gles and aspi­ra­tions. Ste­vie informs him about the locals’ sen­ti­ment towards Nil­s’s plight, empha­siz­ing an accep­tance of harsh real­i­ties where hope feels over­shad­owed.

More­over, he receives med­ical atten­tion from Dr. Girard, who is not only con­cerned about his phys­i­cal well-being but shares his own trag­ic sto­ry of loss, draw­ing a con­nec­tion between their lives. The duo—Girard and Evelyn—bond with the nar­ra­tor, reveal­ing their past sor­rows and pro­vid­ing a sanc­tu­ary that con­trasts his lone­ly jour­ney. As he pre­pares to leave for the Slate Islands, he grap­ples with the pos­si­bil­i­ty of recon­nect­ing with Lark, wear­ing gar­ments from Evelyn’s deceased broth­er, sym­bol­i­cal­ly allow­ing the past to guide him toward poten­tial reunion or rec­on­cil­i­a­tion with his lost love .