Elsewhere

Vera, the narrator, grows up in an isolated mountain town perpetually shrouded in damp clouds. The community is shaped by an "affliction" that has existed since anyone can remember: Mothers periodically vanish into the clouds, their bodies fading until they disappear. The townspeople believe the affliction deepens their love and gives their lives a meaning people elsewhere can never access.

As a child, Vera is inseparable from Ana, her neighbor on a short backstreet called Eschen. Their bond is a "pairing," rare in a town where girls typically form threesomes. The town's only contact with the outside world comes through Mr. Phillips, a supplier who arrives by train four times a year. When the affliction takes a mother, the community gathers on her family's lawn. Her belongings are redistributed, and every photograph of her is burned in a communal fire. The community then examines her past for "signs," small qualities of her love that seemed, in retrospect, out of balance.

Ana's mother goes first, and Vera's mother vanishes a week later. Rather than drawing them closer, these losses destroy their bond. Ana refuses to speak to Vera for months and joins a new threesome. Vera attaches herself to Di and Marie, two girls from her year, and harbors a secret fear that she will never marry or become a mother.

When Vera is 16, a stranger named Ruth arrives. Vera is the first to interact with her at Rapid Ready Photo, the shop Vera's father owns. The town is fascinated, showering Ruth with gifts and relishing how her attention draws theirs to familiar details they had ceased to appreciate. Vera develops a close connection with Ruth, and even her reclusive father emerges from his darkroom. When a mother goes, Ruth witnesses the communal burning and confronts Vera, insisting the town "allows" the affliction. Then Vera discovers Ruth has slept with her father.

The town's affection for Ruth curdles into hostility. A maid at the Alpina hotel discovers a stolen silver hairpin, a sacred object belonging only to the town's women, hidden among Ruth's things. The townspeople confiscate Ruth's film and push her in a procession to the Graubach, the river running through town. Vera reclaims her gold bangle from Ruth's wrist. Ruth slips on the rocks and is swept downstream; only her straw hat remains on the water. Ruth's single roll of film, left behind, contains one remarkable image: a balcony overlooking a gray stone plaza in a distant city. Vera hides this photograph beneath a loose floorboard.

Years pass. A toothache brings Vera to Peter, the new town dentist. They fall in love and marry. On their first night together, Vera pricks Peter's skin with her silver hairpin and tastes his blood, a ritual that binds them. After Vera's father dies, they close Rapid permanently. Vera packs a box of keepsakes, including Ruth's photograph.

Vera gives birth to a girl named Iris and joins a group of new mothers who compare anxieties and debate what the affliction wants from them. Iris grows into a fierce, particular child. At Iris's fifth birthday party, a photograph reveals Vera's image as blurred and transparent while Peter and Iris remain sharp. Vera recalls a legend that a mother on the verge of going will not appear clearly in photographs.

Vera's body begins separating from her control. Her hand freezes mid-task; her mouth refuses to call out when Iris walks along a dangerous ledge. Each afternoon she stretches her hand into the gathering clouds and watches her fingertips disappear. She steals items from shops and hides them in the chimney, assembling the means for flight. One night, lying beside Iris, Vera's body loses all sensation as the clouds thicken. Unable to bear vanishing while she can still act, she whispers into her daughter's ear: "I love you. You are mine. Remember me" (123). She dresses in the stolen clothes, packs Ruth's photograph, and walks down the supply road. By the time she looks back, the town has disappeared.

Vera's arrival elsewhere is harrowing. In a large city she sells her stolen goods for almost nothing. At a squalid hotel, a man assaults her when she pricks his skin with her hairpin during sex, following her own ritual; he steals the pin. She eventually reaches a coastal town, where she is hired as a maid at a modest inn and lodges at Miss Ben's boardinghouse. She befriends Gabi, a wild child whose parents run a photo booth, and senses Iris within her. Vera stays for years, watching seasons cycle and Gabi grow. Miss Ben has a stroke, and Vera takes over the boardinghouse.

After years of traveling, Vera passes through the canal city and traces Ruth's photograph to a specific apartment. The person who answers the door is Mr. Phillips. He confirms Ruth lived with him before going to the town. He lets slip that Iris looks very much like Vera, implying Iris may be vulnerable to the affliction. When Vera insists she must return, Mr. Phillips discourages her, but his warnings only strengthen her resolve.

Vera ascends the supply road and enters the town to find no one recognizes her. Marie, now the Alpina's manager, greets her as a stranger. She learns Ana has gone. She visits Peter, who is warm but unknowing, and discovers Iris, now a teenager playing viola with ferocious instinct. Peter begins visiting Vera's room at the Alpina, and she dares to hope she might stitch herself into their lives anew. But when Ana's daughter Teresa goes, Vera cannot feel the communal grief, confirming she stands outside the affliction's reach. Iris discovers Peter's visits and confronts Vera. When Vera tries to prove her identity by describing intimate details of their home and Iris's childhood, Iris touches Vera's braid, then flings it away: "You look nothing like my mother. You look like a stranger" (210). The townspeople push Vera to the Graubach, just as they once expelled Ruth. Vera throws herself on Iris, then releases her, unwilling to let her daughter carry the weight of pushing her own mother away.

Vera returns to Mr. Phillips and reveals that Ruth was her mother. He confirms it. She accuses him of manipulating her into returning to serve the town's need for a stranger. He admits it: "Every generation needs a stranger" (217). Vera sees the cycle: Mothers who flee become the strangers who return, and their rejection reinforces the town's belief in its own necessity. Each stranger is a mother trying to save her daughter, and each is expelled to prove the town right.

Vera returns to the coast and resumes running the boardinghouse. She teaches photography to refugees, recognizing in their images of displacement a mirror of her own condition. She left a photograph of the sea in Iris's viola case, as her own mother once left the photograph of the plaza that led Vera to the truth. The novel closes with Vera's declaration: "I will wait for Iris until I am air" (221).