The narrative shifts to 14 years before the collapse, when Arthur is 36 years old. He and Miranda, who is twelve years his junior, leave a restaurant in Toronto after dinner; a paparazzo takes a picture of them, which will end up in Kirsten’s collection. Miranda promises to leave her boyfriend and accepts Arthur’s offer to stay with him.

A snippet from an interview in which Arthur reveals that Miranda shares his hometown transitions to an account of Arthur’s youth. He grew up on a sparsely populated island off Canada’s west coast, a place Arthur considers “gorgeous and claustrophic,” recognizing that he “always wanted to escape” (74). In his late teens, Arthur leaves for the University of Toronto, where he drops out of school to focus on acting. He takes introductory acting classes, then transfers to a theater school in New York. After graduation, he lands a small TV role and subsequently accepts the director’s invitation to look for more work in Los Angeles. There, his career advances gradually while party after party sours him to a life of “tedious debauchery” (76).

At the age of 29, Arthur is cast in a film to be shot Toronto. While there, he receives a call from his mother, who suggests that Arthur meet Miranda, who moved to Delano Island, where Arthur grew up, after Arthur left.