- The novel starts off by simply saying, "He believed he was safe." Now we don't know who "he" is or what he's up to. But we probably tell us that this guy isn't safe at all: you know, in the same way that were kind of don't believe that a dude who says "Call me Ishmael" is really named Ishmael.
- We quickly find out that the nameless guy is standing at the edge of a ship and staring out at the water. He doesn't want to be on the ship anymore, so he jumps. We can only assume that there's some reason why he doesn't just walk off the thing onto the nearby dock.
- The guy tries to swim as quietly as possible, but before he knows it, the ocean current grabs him and starts dragging him out to sea. His only chance is to climb onto a small, private yacht that is sailing nearby.
- Once onboard, he doesn't hear anyone. So he heads down into the belly of the boat and falls asleep in a little closet.
- Later, he wakes up and hears two women talking. They head up onto the deck of the boat while he slips into a small kitchen area looking for food. There's not much to be had, though.
- After waiting for a while, he doesn't hear the women anymore and heads back up onto the deck. He finds that the women are gone and that the boat is parked at a wharf on some unknown island. The narrator knows something we don't, though, because he/she mentions that this island, "three hundred years ago, had struck slaves blind the moment they saw it" (P.7).