Chap­ter 1 intro­duces Phoebe Stone, who arrives at the Corn­wall Inn, an ele­gant hotel perched high on a cliff, over­look­ing the expan­sive ocean. The scene is paint­ed with nos­tal­gia and an over­whelm­ing sense of both excite­ment and uncer­tain­ty. As she steps out of the cab wear­ing a strik­ing emer­ald silk dress—the only pos­ses­sion she tru­ly val­ues after her recent divorce—Phoebe finds her­self at a cross­roads. She leaves behind her old life in St. Louis, includ­ing her mar­riage and pos­ses­sions, enter­ing an unfa­mil­iar world amidst the glob­al lock­downs. The weight of her past life lingers, but there is also a feel­ing of lib­er­a­tion, as she begins to forge a new path, even though the sense of dis­ori­en­ta­tion per­sists.

As Phoebe reflects on her life before the divorce, mem­o­ries of the mun­dane rou­tines she fol­lowed as a pro­fes­sor flood her thoughts. Life dur­ing the pan­dem­ic had been pre­dictable, com­fort­able in its sim­plic­i­ty, yet it now feels dis­tant from the per­son she is becom­ing. She acknowl­edges the dis­com­fort of no longer fit­ting into that pre­vi­ous mold of pre­dictabil­i­ty. This real­iza­tion pro­pels her jour­ney to New­port, a place she hopes will offer a fresh per­spec­tive. The emer­ald dress she chose before leav­ing for New­port is a sym­bol of this trans­for­ma­tion. It is a bold depar­ture from the con­ser­v­a­tive, pre­dictable attire of her past life, and it marks her desire to reclaim her­self in a world that has shift­ed beyond recog­ni­tion.

Upon enter­ing the Corn­wall Inn, Phoebe’s emo­tion­al state fluc­tu­ates between antic­i­pa­tion and con­fu­sion. The hotel is bustling with activ­i­ty, and the check-in line is unex­pect­ed­ly long, filled with cou­ples prepar­ing for wed­dings, a stark con­trast to Phoebe’s lone­ly, soli­tary pres­ence. As she observes the wed­ding guests, she feels detached from their joy and com­pan­ion­ship, as if she is stand­ing on the out­side look­ing in. The bride, with all her atten­tion and affec­tion focused on her, sym­bol­izes every­thing Phoebe wish­es she could possess—connection, hap­pi­ness, and cer­tain­ty about her place in the world. The dis­par­i­ty between the life Phoebe once knew and the one she is try­ing to embrace only deep­ens her sense of dis­con­nec­tion.

Final­ly check­ing in, Phoebe finds her­self caught in a brief con­ver­sa­tion with the front desk atten­dant, which offers lit­tle more than pleas­antries. How­ev­er, this exchange serves as a cat­a­lyst for Phoebe’s inter­nal reflec­tion. She had imag­ined the Corn­wall Inn as her “hap­py place,” a retreat she had dreamed of vis­it­ing for years after see­ing it in a trav­el mag­a­zine. But as the con­ver­sa­tion unfolds, she is con­front­ed with the real­iza­tion that her emo­tion­al bag­gage is far from left behind. Her name, “Phoebe Stone,” which once rep­re­sent­ed her past life, now feels for­eign to her. It is a sym­bol of the iden­ti­ty she is strug­gling to leave behind, as if she can­not ful­ly shake off the rem­nants of her for­mer self.

In the qui­et moments that fol­low, Phoebe reflects on the iso­la­tion she feels, not only from oth­ers but from her­self. She is acute­ly aware of the sad­ness that lingers with­in her, no mat­ter where she goes. The weight of her past life, her divorce, and her iden­ti­ty strug­gle are car­ried with her like a shad­ow that refus­es to let go. Phoebe’s jour­ney is not just phys­i­cal but deeply emo­tion­al, as she con­tem­plates the path ahead. The chap­ter con­cludes with a poignant real­iza­tion that a “hap­py place” is not defined sole­ly by loca­tion but by the emo­tion­al state one brings with them. Despite the grandeur of the Corn­wall Inn, Phoebe under­stands that true peace will not be found until she address­es the emo­tion­al tur­moil she car­ries inside. The inner sad­ness, no mat­ter the place or cir­cum­stances, remains an inte­gral part of her jour­ney.