It is Rebecca and her thirteen-year-old-son Tomas's first Christmas in Galway, and Rebecca gives Tomas a wetsuit. Tomas was adopted when he was six, and he has already lived a difficult life—he has fetal alcohol syndrome, and, as a result, he is deaf and does not understand very much about the world around him. Rebecca and Tomas used to live in Stepaside with Rebecca's then-husband Alan, and her parents helped to take care of Tomas. Now, Rebecca and Alan are divorced, and Rebecca's parents have passed away, so taking care of Tomas is entirely Rebecca's responsibility. Rebecca makes a living translating Hebrew into English. Christmas day, Rebecca and Tomas walk down to the coast so Tomas can take a quick dip in his new wetsuit. He swims out quickly and then disappears; in a panic, Rebecca jumps in with her clothes on, finds Tomas, and drags him back to shore. Her cell phone had been in her pocket when she dove in. It is now dead. Back at the cottage, Rebecca and Tomas eat dinner together, then Rebecca puts Tomas to bed. He thrashes around in bed—night rages, the doctors call it—and Rebecca puts a leather helmet on him to protect his head. When he settles down, she heads back to her room to sleep. The next morning, Tomas is gone. The hook where his wetsuit hung is empty. Rebecca runs outside, calls for Tomas, runs back inside and alerts Alan that Tomas is missing. She pulls on her own wetsuit and heads to the water. She is desperate to find Tomas and stays in the cold water for far too long—Coast Guard officials yank her out of the water as she nears hypothermia. The media has descended on the town; police and detectives swarm Rebecca's house when she returns, and Alan has also arrived. Rebecca thinks of a word she recently came across while translating—sh'khol—a Hebrew word for a parent who has lost a child. There is no adequate English translation, but she thinks of the word often while the search for Tomas continues. For the next two days, police, detectives, and neighbors search for Tomas. Then, on the morning of the third day of Tomas's disappearance, Rebecca goes for a walk and sees Tomas walking towards her. He wears the clothes of an adult man and drags his wetsuit behind him. At the hospital, it is determined that Tomas was not harmed in any way, and Rebecca brings him back home. She knows that what happened to Tomas will be a mystery, always—he can't communicate what happened to him—but his return is enough for Rebecca. She helps him get in the bath, and then leaves him be.