On March 11, 2014, Addie LaRue is alone in James St. Clair’s new apartment while James is away on location. The space feels unnaturally silent without him, and attempts to fill the quiet with records, television, and radio only make the emptiness more pronounced.

The gray, rainy day and the apartment’s impersonal comforts leave Addie restless. Finding the tea she wants gone and James’s books mostly histories, Addie decides she cannot stay shut inside with only her own thoughts. Before leaving, Addie tidies up and steals a new cashmere scarf from a closet shelf.

Addie walks without a clear destination, repeating her name to herself and reflecting on how, after three hundred years, part of her still fears forgetting. Addie thinks of how cruel it is to be remembered by no one, and she hears the darkness— the presence tied to her curse—whisper, “I remember,” as if offering comfort despite being the source of her fate.

Drawn by her mood and the weather, Addie goes to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, a place she loves because it gathers history and preserves what would otherwise be lost. Moving through familiar galleries, Addie makes her way to the European sculpture court to seek a specific work.

Addie finds Revenir in its glass case: a wooden plinth topped with five marble birds, captured in the instant before flight. The fifth bird holds Addie’s attention, and the title—“to come back”—lands like a private promise. Addie remembers the “miracle” of discovering the piece before: created by Arlo Miret, a stranger who nonetheless turned part of Addie’s story into something lasting, proof that ideas can take root where memories cannot.