The unnamed first-person protagonist recalls her childhood questions about the mysterious disappearances on the unnamed island where she lives. This memory takes place in the riverside basement studio where her “Mama” works.

Her mother, a sculptor, can remember the objects—like emeralds, bells, and stamps—that have disappeared and keeps a collection of them in a cabinet with small drawers. She shares stories about the forgotten objects, such as a bottle of perfume, explaining that girls wore perfume when they were meeting boys and how she chose this particular perfume when she and the protagonist’s father where courting.

The protagonist’s mother also explains how disappearances work: Objects are burned, buried, or tossed into the river, and “no one can even recall what it was that disappeared” (4). When asked how she can remember, Mama guesses it’s because the things that have disappeared are always on her mind, but later in the story, her memory is revealed to be the result of some sort of genetic difference.

In the present, the protagonist lives in her family home after both her parents and childhood nurse have died. She reminisces about her father’s work as an ornithologist—a job that has become obsolete since the birds disappeared—and visiting him at the bird observatory on the southern hill as a “little girl.