Narrator Lizet introduces her work as a scientist studying the demise of coral reef systems. She relays the stories she shares with researchers, postdocs, and undergrads about what her family, who lived for many years near a canal in Little Havana, dumped into the water: motor oil, a whole car transmission, a dead hamster in its plastic cage, “dried-out watercolors, homemade tape recordings of [her mother’s] own voice, parched hunks of white clay” (2). Lizet acknowledges her audiences’ shock and discomfort at these tales, and reveals that there are many stories she does not share; for example, when her father and his friends found a dead body in the canal and left it there to rot.

Lizet also reveals that while working underwater on the West Coast, she accidentally swallowed contaminated water and had to take antibiotics. The memory reminds her of a family story she hates: When Lizet was three, she blew up her own water wings and jumped into the canal behind the house while her mother was talking to the neighbor. She was rescued by her parents, “who take embarrassingly long to discover me floating across the street” (4); they took her to the hospital.