In 2008, on a week-long trip to a film festival in Iceland, Sarah Thomas was spellbound by the strange landscape she found herself in, a place whose midwinter full moon is brighter than daylight, where fierce storms shake iron-clad houses and northern lights pattern the night sky, where the meaning of the word for yes is imbued with ambiguity when spoken on an inbreath. A place in which, and with which, it is possible to think differently. An immediate love for this country and a man she meets there, Bjarni, turns what was intended to be a short stay into a profoundly transformative half decade, one which radically alters Sarah’s understanding of herself and the natural world. As her marriage unravels due to her and Bjarni’s struggle to communicate across cultures, they decide to divorce, just as a tremor swarm heralds a major volcanic eruption.