This Must Be the Place

Claudette is interviewed with Timou Lindstrom in their shared New York City apartment in 1993, but she soon retreats to hide in the bathroom. Timou comes in and seductively coaxes her to rejoin them in the living room.

Claudette feels trapped sitting in the living room with Timou and the interviewer. While Timou discusses his approach to filmmaking, Claudette lets her mind wander, settling on the cubby that she created for their assistant—a Canadian woman who quit suddenly, leaving only a note. After Timou gives Claudette credit for collaborating with him on the recent film, Claudette slowly realizes that the odd phrase he used earlier had come from that assistant.

Danny wakes up in his parents’ room in New York and realizes that he’s sleeping on his late mother’s side of the bed. He’s jet-lagged and confused for a few minutes, slowly coming to awareness as Myrna, his father’s wife, comes in and asks if he’s eaten. He haphazardly explains that he came in to make a call home and fell asleep accidentally. He considers whether to see Todd in Sussex or go straight home. He looks at Myrna, thinking of his mother and wondering why these women married his father. He remembers asking his mother this question when he was younger and how she burst into tears. He distracts himself from that memory by asking Myrna’s advice on his present situation. She recommends that he let the past go and return to his family.

This chapter focuses on Timou Lindstrom’s assistant, Lenny Schneider, in Los Angeles in 1994. Lenny rides a bicycle next to Timou, who is training for the Ironman Triathlon. Lenny wishes he were back in New York instead of listening to Timou complain; his regular life was comforting and made sense. He thinks of the dinner he had with the girl he was dating before coming to LA on one of Timou’s whims. The girl was only really interested in Claudette. Timou gets a call from Claudette, who asks him to bring her food. Timou accidentally tells Lenny that Claudette is pregnant and sends him to deliver her food.

Years later, Lenny returns to New York and sees news of Claudette’s disappearance. He thinks of when he met her that day at her house in LA. She was trimming tree limbs with a chainsaw before she met him in the house. She made pleasant conversation, gave him water, and then asked him if Timou was having an affair with the art director. Lenny tried to lie but failed, admitting that everyone knew.

In Donegal, Marithe hides under the kitchen table, listening to her grandmother, Pascaline, and her uncle Lucas talking about her parents, partially in French, which they think she can’t understand. Pascaline says that she believes Daniel has a self-destructive side that could hurt Claudette. Pascaline is worried what Daniel is in Sussex with another woman and worries that the news of Claudette’s whereabouts will be leaked.

Marithe runs out from under the table into the yard, thinking of her brother Ari. She throws rocks at the well that her father boarded up after Ari showed it to her. She goes to the hen house, where the three hens, one for each child, are waiting to be fed. She feeds Calvin’s hen, but when Ari’s hen tries to eat, Marithe grabs it and throws it back into the hen house. Marithe howls, feeling guilty, and Claudette comes and comforts her. Before Marithe goes to feed the hen after all, she asks Claudette about what she heard from Pascaline. Claudette and Pascaline argue in the yard.

Flat mates Daniel, Todd, and Suki attend a wedding at the English/Scottish border in 1986. Todd is bored at the reception and takes a pill that he has in his pocket: He sells drugs on the side to make enough money to pay his bills. He and Suki go looking for Daniel as the drug takes effect. They see Nicola Janks, who is disturbingly thin. Daniel, high on the unknown drug, finds Todd. Daniel is supposed to fly back to New York to be with his dying mother the next morning. Todd tells Daniel that he’s concerned that Nicola is too thin. Daniel then grabs more drugs from Todd and runs into the woods.

Daniel and Todd first met when Daniel moved into the attic room of Todd and Suki’s flat. Initially, he brought home different girls on a regular basis and made friends with Todd and Suki. Later, though, he got involved with the older Nicola, and they had a serious relationship. One night, Todd and Suki found Daniel in the kitchen, very drunk, and he alludes to Nicola getting an abortion. The next night, Daniel brought home another girl, and Nicola discovered them the following morning. Daniel and Nicola fought, he tried to stop her from leaving, and she hit him.

Back at the wedding, Todd is in a clearing near a fire that Daniel has built: Various wedding guests have created a second party in the woods. As Todd drifts in his drugged haze, he recalls the conversation he heard between Nicola and Daniel earlier near the lake. Nicola told Daniel that she couldn’t trust him; he said that he was worried about her health and that she wasn’t wrong to trust him before. She gave him her condolences about his mother and asked when he’d be back. He asked her to get help for her eating disorder while he’s gone and said that he’d be back in a month.

Todd and Daniel fall asleep beside the fire. In the early morning, Daniel wakes up in a panic that he’ll miss his flight. As they put themselves together, they see Nicola lying on the ground. Daniel asks Todd if she’s okay and says that he may have given her some cocaine. Todd checks her, feeling her cold skin, and tells Daniel to run back to the bed and breakfast and have Suki drive him to the airport. Todd will stay and take care of Nicola.