Maria, a teenage girl, is waiting for her father to return from the construction site. They live in Phoenix, Arizona, a state that suffers from 120 degree Fahrenheit temperatures and excessive air pollution, due to the fires waged now constantly in California and the Sierras. The setting is the near-future, in a world where the climate crisis has completely changed the face of the United States. Maria and her father are refugees from Texas, staying in Phoenix until her father completes his work at a new building, the Taiyang. The Taiyang is a high-rise complex with sustainable fixtures that will shield its inhabitants from the unhealthy force of the environment. Working on this project will give Maria and her father enough money to make their way out of the United States for good. It is near completion. As Maria waits for her father, she works on her Chinese lessons and drinks water, which is scarce. After a certain point, she notices that he has been gone far too long and decides to search him out herself. She visits the Taiyang and speaks to a guard who informs her that her father suffered a fall earlier that day while working and passed away. He will be cremated. She remarks how she will become yet another source of ash in her polluted world.