Amanda and Nina arrive at a country vacation rental house in rural Argentina.

Amanda meets her neighbor Carla for the first time as Carla walks toward her car in a gold bikini.

Carla discovers her borrowed stallion drinking from a nearby stream while David plays in the same water.

The borrowed stallion's face swells grotesquely overnight, confirming the stream water is dangerously contaminated.

Carla rushes young David to a local healer living in a green house to treat his poisoning.

David emerges from the healer's ritual with unfamiliar footsteps; Carla cannot bring herself to embrace her changed son.

David begins digging small graves in the backyard, burying dead animals one by one.

Men wearing protective plastic gloves unload large drums from a truck at Carla's farm while Nina watches.

Nina and Amanda get wet sitting in the grass; Amanda dismisses the liquid soaking their clothes as dew.

Nina comes to Amanda with stinging hands; the two mothers soothe the girl with kisses and cookies.

Amanda feels severely ill and lies down in the grass, unable to explain her symptoms to Carla.

A clinic nurse examines Amanda and Nina, diagnoses them both with sunstroke, and sends them home.

Amanda collapses in the street while trying to reach the clinic nurses; Nina cries alone in the car.

Carla tells the hospitalized Amanda that Nina has already been taken to the woman in the green house.

Amanda feels the invisible thread connecting her to Nina pull tight and then snap; she knows she is dying.

Amanda and her daughter Nina arrive at a rural Argentine vacation rental and befriend their neighbor Carla. Carla tells Amanda how her son David was poisoned as a toddler after playing in a contaminated stream, requiring a mysterious spirit migration to survive. During a visit to Carla's farm, Amanda and Nina sit in grass soaked with toxic runoff, unknowingly exposing themselves to poison. As both fall ill, a clinic nurse dismisses their symptoms as sunstroke and sends them home without proper treatment. Amanda's condition deteriorates rapidly, and she eventually collapses in the street before waking in a hospital, where she learns Nina has been taken to the same healer who treated David. The novel ends with Amanda sensing the invisible thread connecting her to Nina pull taut and then snap, as she accepts she is dying.

The central poisoning tragedy and Amanda's death.

Amanda lies in a hospital bed unable to see; a boy's voice tells her to find the moment the worms entered her body.

Carla confides in Amanda, worried that hearing about David will make Amanda keep Nina away from him.

The borrowed stallion escapes while Carla is supposed to be watching him from the kitchen window.

Carla notices a dead bird floating in the same stream where David had been playing.

David develops white spots on his skin and begins answering questions with the phrase 'That is not important.'

Amanda and Nina visit a local store and encounter a girl with an enormous forehead and one much shorter leg.

Amanda returns from her walk to find Carla urgently warning that David is inside with Nina and the doors are locked.

Amanda and Carla find both children safe; Amanda shouts at Carla for frightening her with superstitious beliefs.

Amanda decides to cut the vacation short and return to Buenos Aires in the morning.

Carla reveals that Omar began locking David's bedroom door at night after growing uncomfortable around his own son.

Carla confesses to Amanda that she always dreamed of having a daughter and sometimes thinks of leaving her family.

Carla takes Amanda and Nina back to her house after the clinic visit; Amanda drifts in and out of consciousness on the couch.

Amanda gazes out Carla's window and counts 28 small graves where David buried animals in the backyard.

Carla reaches Amanda's husband by phone; Amanda hears herself try to speak and realizes how gravely ill she is.

Amanda's husband drives away from the rural town past soy fields, factories, and dry streams without registering their danger.

The novel opens with Amanda already dying in a hospital bed, guided through her memories by the disembodied voice of nine-year-old David. Carla's backstory unfolds through specific details: the stallion's escape from the kitchen window, the dead bird in the stream, and the disturbing behavioral changes in David following his spirit migration. Amanda encounters signs of widespread rural contamination, including a disabled girl in the local store, but fails to understand their significance. After a frightening incident involving David and Nina in the locked rental house, Amanda resolves to leave but is deterred by social obligation. By the time Amanda and Nina reach Carla's house after the botched clinic visit, Amanda is fading in and out of consciousness, unable to protect her daughter. The novel closes with Amanda's husband driving away from the town, just as blind to the environmental dangers as his wife had been.

Supporting scenes that fill in the story's full arc.

At their first meeting, Carla warns Amanda that the tap water smells strange and is better avoided that day.

Carla tells Amanda she was terrified during pregnancy that David would be born missing fingers and toes.

The healer in the green house tells Carla the only way to save David is to transfer his spirit to another body.

Carla agrees to the migration and waits in the healer's kitchen, staring at a photo of men working in a soy field.

Amanda takes a walk alone while Nina naps, hoping to map the landscape so she can better calculate the rescue distance.

Amanda walks through soy fields and locates the green house, then notices a black dog missing one leg nearby.

Amanda and Carla rush inside the rental house; Amanda sees David for the first time and notices white spots on his skin.

Amanda watches from outside as David throws Carla's shoes, scarf, and towel into the pool before walking away.

Amanda has a nightmare in which Nina announces at the dinner table that she is David, not Nina.

Amanda wakes from her nightmare determined to leave immediately and begins packing before Nina wakes up.

Amanda decides she must say goodbye to Carla first, reversing her plan to leave the rental house right away.

David interrupts Amanda's account of the farm visit to insist they have finally reached the critical moment.

Carla tells Amanda that Omar's horses vanished one night; only a frozen, motionless foal was left in the field.

Amanda desperately begs David to keep Nina's spirit somewhere nearby after the migration; David says there is nothing he can do.

David climbs into Amanda's husband's car and sits in the backseat clutching Nina's stuffed mole, staring up desperately.

From the very first warning about contaminated tap water to the healer's chilling description of the migration's unknowable consequences, this pool tracks the pivotal turning points in the story. Carla's decision to agree to the ritual, despite warnings of unpredictable consequences, sets a pattern that is repeated when Nina is later poisoned. Amanda's solo walk through the soy fields brings her face-to-face with the green house and a deformed dog, early signs of danger she cannot decode. A nightmare about Nina claiming to be David jolts Amanda into planning to flee, but her instinct to say a proper goodbye proves fatal. As the poisoning takes hold, Amanda loses the ability to save her daughter and makes one final futile plea before the rescue distance breaks forever. The ending turns to David climbing into Amanda's husband's car, holding Nina's stuffed toy and staring desperately, a haunting image of a broken connection that can never be restored.