Amid the Svalbard expedition, Nora hears a woman describe an iceberg somersaulting as warming waters hollow it from below. She learns about thawing permafrost threatening landslides, avalanches, and even releasing graves, and she is moved by scientists working to understand and protect the planet.

Back on the main boat, colleagues offer sympathy for the polar bear encounter. Nora keeps quiet about feeling grateful for the experience, recognizing that this life’s intensity contrasts with the blandness she associated with her root life. She begins to question the idea that mediocrity is her destiny.

Nora revisits her maternal history: Lorenzo Conte left Puglia for “Swinging London” but ended up making bricks in Bedford; Patricia Brown abandoned acting dreams for domestic life. Their daughter, Donna, grew up amid arguments, believed marriage meant unhappiness, found office work, and suffered breakdowns that led her to leave her career.

She then considers her father, Geoff: raised by a struggling Irish mother after his father’s early death, bullied until he grew strong, he excelled in rugby for Bedford Blues before a ligament injury ended his prospects. He became a PE teacher, nursed quiet resentment, and limited his travels to magazines and brief Greek holidays.

Through these stories, Nora sees a pattern of thwarted dreams shaping her own habit of quitting. She concludes that most lives blend disappointment with flashes of beauty and that meaning may lie in witnessing those moments. On the boat, she realizes how much she loves her parents and consciously forgives them, reinforcing her desire to live.