Even before Valancy receives a letter from Dr Trent in Montreal about her diagnosis, she commits her first act of rebellion, decimating a rose bush that she is frustrated with since it never blooms. Fortuitously, her mother is furious that she wasn't consulted before the hacking commenced, and will now not talk to Valancy for several days.
When the news arrives that Valancy only has a year to live, this isolation allows her to keep it entirely to herself. Dazed and bewildered, angry that she will die before she has ever really lived, Valancy begins to process the news and what it means for her life.
