Chapter 3 ('Chapter 1') Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

The chapter opens in La Jolla, California, in 2016, immediately after Noelle Des Jardins's funeral. Mirabelle has retreated to her mother's bathroom, where she sits on the toilet smoking an illicit cigarette and watching a skincare video by Dr. Marva titled How to Save Your Own Neck. The bathroom is cluttered with her mother's belongings—decorative baskets, red jellyfish soaps, black towels, a cracked mirror, Chanel Rouge Allure lipstick, and a cluster of red skincare jars on a silver tray. Dr. Marva lectures on the neglected neck, calling it a site of potential horrors: redness, pigment, thinning. Mirabelle recalls her mother's insistence that the neck never lies and reveals the truth like a mirror of the soul.

Sylvia knocks on the door. Mirabelle remembers that Sylvia loaned her the black dress she's wearing from Belle of the Ball, the dress shop Sylvia co-owned with Noelle. She reflects on receiving the phone call at her Montreal workplace, Damsels in This Dress, where a policeman informed her that her mother had fallen onto rocks by the ocean and was found dead on the beach by a man walking his Saint Bernard. Mirabelle responded with eerie composure, telling her boss Persephone and her co-workers the news flatly, then buying a plane ticket while drinking liqueur. She packed only skin products—seven ziplock bags of serums, essences, and acids—but no dress. She left her cat Lucifer with her neighbor Monsieur Lam, who has excellent skin.

Back in the bathroom, Sylvia presses Mirabelle about how long she'll stay and hints that there are things they need to discuss at the shop. Mirabelle deflects, saying she needs rest. She escapes to the veranda, where she encounters a striking woman in a flowing red dress with red hair and red lips, standing apart from the other mourners and smiling at the ocean. The woman tells Mirabelle, She went the way of roses, and when Mirabelle asks what that means, the woman only smiles. A mourner interrupts to praise Noelle's stage performance, and when Mirabelle looks again, the woman in red has vanished, leaving only the rosebushes along the railing.

Key Events

Mirabelle hides in her mother's bathroom after the funeral, watching a Dr. Marva skincare video about necks
She recalls the phone call from a policeman informing her of her mother's death by the ocean
Flashback to Montreal: Mirabelle tells Persephone and co-workers, packs only skin products, leaves Lucifer with Monsieur Lam
Sylvia loans Mirabelle a black dress from Belle of the Ball
At the gathering, Mirabelle questions mourners' platitudes about the soul living on
Sylvia hints at unspecified matters to discuss at the shop
On the veranda, the woman in red tells Mirabelle She went the way of roses and disappears
A mourner praises Noelle's stage performance; the woman in red is gone

Character Development

Mirabelle emerges as a narrator whose grief manifests as numbness and avoidance. She deflects sympathy, watches skincare videos, and escapes social interaction. Her composure at the news of her mother's death contrasts with her internal turmoil. She apologizes to mourners even as she wants to flee them, and she questions their platitudes with unsettling directness.

Sylvia is presented as saccharine and insinuating, with a possessive claim on Noelle and the shop. Her hints about things to discuss create unease, and her gaze at the ocean view suggests she sees opportunity in Noelle's absence.

The woman in red is an enigmatic figure whose cryptic message and sudden disappearance introduce a supernatural or symbolic element. Her red hair and dress echo Noelle's own red aesthetic, and her smile suggests she knows something Mirabelle does not.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Skincare ritual as coping mechanism: Mirabelle's obsessive watching of Dr. Marva's videos and her packing of seven ziplock bags of products instead of a dress show how beauty routines serve as armor against grief.
The neck as symbol of truth: Dr. Marva's lecture and Noelle's remembered words position the neck as a site of revelation, contrasting with Mirabelle's own avoidance of mirrors.
Cracked mirrors and fractured identity: The cracked mirror in the bathroom and the cracked mirrors in the hallway suggest a splintered self, one that Mirabelle cannot bear to confront.
Red as recurring color motif: Red appears in the lipstick, the skincare jars, the woman's dress and hair, the rosebushes, and the heart pendant Mirabelle remembers her mother clutching.
The ocean as site of death: The waves that Mirabelle cannot look at or sleep through become a constant reminder of her mother's fall.
Funeral as social performance: The mourners' platitudes, the fake champagne, and Sylvia's careful hosting all read as hollow theater to Mirabelle.
Mother-daughter estrangement: Mirabelle's memory of her mother asking Who are you? near the end, and her own flight from California to Montreal, suggest a relationship marked by distance and unresolved tension.

Why This Chapter Matters

This opening chapter establishes the novel's central tensions: Mirabelle's unresolved relationship with her mother, the mystery surrounding Noelle's death, and the introduction of the woman in red whose cryptic phrase the way of roses will presumably drive the plot. It also establishes the skincare obsession as both a coping mechanism and a potential clue, and it plants the cracked mirrors and red motifs that will recur throughout the novel. The chapter sets up Sylvia's hinted things to discuss as a source of narrative suspense.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Mirabelle watch Dr. Marva's video about necks in her mother's bathroom?

The video serves as a distraction from grief and a way to avoid confronting her mother's belongings. It also connects to Noelle's own teachings about the neck as a mirror of truth, suggesting Mirabelle is trying to control what her own neck reveals.

2. What does the cracked mirror motif suggest about Mirabelle's identity?

The cracked mirrors in the bathroom and hallway suggest a fractured sense of self. Mirabelle sees herself as broken and cleaved, and the mirrors also reflect her mother's legacy—the shop, the beauty rituals, the estrangement—that she cannot fully escape.

3. What might the way of roses mean, and why does the woman in red appear at the funeral?

The phrase is deliberately cryptic, but it connects to the red motif and the rosebushes on the veranda. The woman's appearance at the funeral, her red hair and dress echoing Noelle's aesthetic, and her knowing smile suggest she may be a messenger or a supernatural presence tied to Noelle's death.

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