The narrator arrives in Los Angeles, meets customs officer Jose and articulates a pervasive societal “itch” of disconnection; she then recounts how COVID‑19, the George Floyd murder, and other crises reshaped her thinking, outlines the book’s genesis, structure, and influences, and sets the stage for a call to reconnect.
The narrator dissects modern loneliness, layering it into existential, relational, and moral dimensions; she cites global statistics, scientific studies, and cultural anecdotes—including a “lady in red” she meets in a Ljubljana café—to illustrate how loneliness pervades despite hyper‑connectivity, and introduces “moral loneliness” as a deeper, societal‑wide disconnection from values and purpose.
She undertakes a four‑day Dorset–Somerset–Wiltshire pub‑to‑pub walk, stopping at the King John Inn, Buckhorn Weston, Corton Denham and Salisbury’s Saxon abbey, while reflecting on her nomadic loneliness, literary influences, and a shaman’s warning about traditional relationships, and ends the segment affirming her choice of a “perilous and interesting” life.
The narrator analyzes technology’s role in fostering “connection‑lite,” illustrates it with a cafe observation of screen‑obsessed youths, travels to Slovenia where a gondola ride with Nika and journalist Janez sparks a dialogue on awe and societal over‑indulgence, and then delves into modern dating‑app behaviours, ghosting, and Instagram algorithm quirks, underscoring a deeper relational emptiness.
The narrator identifies capitalism as the systemic root of environmental degradation, public health failures, and moral loneliness; recounts a coffee‑shop confrontation with a construction supervisor about single‑use cups; reveals her anti‑capitalist upbringing and cites recent polls showing growing public skepticism of capitalism; details how COVID‑19 exposed the fragile, profit‑driven health and supply systems; traces capitalism’s evolution from a liberating force to neoliberalism that dismantled collective institutions; presents stark inequality data and critiques fast‑fashion, plastic waste, and endless consumption; concludes with a moral appeal that capitalism has left humanity isolated and in need of new communal frameworks.
The narrator travels to the Swiss Alps, hikes the Heididorf area, stays at Hotel Sonne Fex, climbs multiple peaks, meets her longtime friend Libby for a joint hike, discovers Friedrich Nietzsche’s former cottage in Sils Maria, and uses the experience to illustrate nature’s healing power and its contrast with modern capitalist alienation.
The narrator delves into Erich Fromm’s doctrine of love and work as antidotes to modern alienation, recounts personal history with work starting at age eleven, admits a deep reluctance toward intimate love, and describes a trip to Greece where she encounters the concept of philotimo, receives a pivotal warning from her Ikarian friend Eleni, and experiences a revelatory hike that crystallizes the lesson.
Sarah hikes the Samariá Gorge, befriends a young engineer named Giorgos who exemplifies the Greek ethic of philotimo, and later undergoes a clandestine insemination amid her long‑standing fertility struggle; the chapter also recounts a dog‑bite incident and a shepherd’s unexpected apology, tying personal challenges to cultural notions of communal generosity.
The narrator joins David Whyte’s poetry‑guided hiking retreat in England’s Lake District, engages in group discussions about moral loneliness and collective knowing, hikes with the group and then solo on a demanding mountain, reads Nan Shepherd’s The Living Mountain and reflects on mania, nature, and deep reading practices, reinforcing the theme that poetry and wilderness can counter modern disconnection.
The narrator discovers she is pregnant while in Ljubljana, confronts the edge of her life, elaborates on the concept of personal edge, introduces Pema Chödrön’s teachings, examines youth anxiety and societal over‑protection, critiques capitalism’s role in fostering isolation, and reflects on climate‑crisis anxiety and how embracing the edge reduces her fear.
The narrator, four months pregnant, undertakes a “Plan B” hike across the Julian Alps, renting a car to reach the opposite side of Mount Triglav. She stays in mountain huts, walks the Soča Valley with waterfall stops, swims in turquoise rivers, and observes a quirky family picnic. The journey culminates at Hiša Franko, where she meets another solo traveler named Sarah; they share a multi‑course meal featuring sourdough, fermented cucumber, rabbit, peanut butter, violets, and cheese lollipops, discuss love and pregnancy, and deliberately choose not to exchange contact information, preserving the encounter as a singular, fleeting connection.
The narrator positions walking in nature as a radical, restorative practice, intertwining historical, activist, and personal anecdotes, and then delivers a step‑by‑step minimalist hiking guide that highlights scientific, psychological, and therapeutic benefits.
Sarah experiences a miscarriage in Chania, undergoes a D&C, then hires a car and hikes the White Mountains (Mount Gigilos) alone, using intense wailing and physical exertion to process her grief. She reaches the summit, discovers a memorial plaque for a woman named Sarah, and reflects on grief as a form of falling into oneself, quoting David Whyte and Peter Levine. The chapter introduces the concept of solastalgia and ecological grief, illustrated by the narrator’s reaction to climate‑related devastation witnessed in Australia. She repeats the “purging” hike on a separate mountain near Zourva, gets lost, remains calm, and drinks whisky, noting that most of the grief has passed through the mountain experience.