Six days ago, Dorothy had a miscarriage. At the novel's opening, she is examining the 'thick, curdled knots of string' that are still coming out of her body. Her doctor had told her that the bleeding would stop in a few days, but it hasn't. She considers the miscarriage as 'less than a trauma and more than an inconvenience'. Like everything that happens to Dorothy, she observes the events of her life with detached interest.