Two weeks before the old world ends, Miranda stands barefoot on a Malaysian beach, watching the lights of an enormous, idle container-ship fleet offshore. She knows of the Georgia Flu only as a distant crisis, and the hotel staff deliberately avoids alarming guests even as nearby airports begin to close.

Miranda’s phone call is from Clark Thompson in New York: Arthur Leander has died of a heart attack the previous night, onstage during King Lear. Miranda absorbs the news as the uncanny lights on the horizon make the coming collapse feel briefly supernatural.

In New York, Clark tries to manage the practical fallout at work while avoiding office gossip. His assistant, Tabitha, puts through Arthur’s lawyer, Gary Heller, who has already woken and notified Arthur’s brother despite Clark’s plan to wait. Heller presses Clark about a woman named Tanya Gerard, a wardrobe worker on King Lear, suggesting Arthur was having a secret affair and may have tried to change his will to add a new beneficiary.

Disgusted by Heller’s opportunism and overwhelmed by grief, Clark cuts the call short and contacts Elizabeth Colton, Arthur’s second wife and the mother of Arthur’s son, Tyler. Clark tells Elizabeth the funeral will be in Toronto, a choice that echoes Arthur’s belief that Toronto was the only place he ever felt free.

The next morning, Clark reaches JFK through a series of lucky near-misses with infection and boards one of the last flights out. He realizes Elizabeth and Tyler are on the same plane, though seated in First Class. Midflight, the pilot announces a diversion, and the passengers disembark in confusion at the Severn City Airport.