Nicoya and Daniel are born in the same hospital in Jerusalem on the same date. At 2 a.m.， their fathers exchange smiles in the nursery. When Nicoya is three months old， her mother takes her on a bus to the assisted living home where Nicoya’s grandmother lives. In the back of the same bus， Daniel sleeps against his mother’s chest for two stops before he is carried off the bus and down the street and into his home， eyes peacefully closed all the while.

尼科娅和丹尼尔同一天出生在耶路撒冷，而且是同一家医院。凌晨两点，两人的父亲在育婴室曾相视一笑。尼科娅三个月大时，母亲抱着她乘公交车前往养老院看望祖母。就在这辆车的后排，丹尼尔倚在母亲胸前安睡；两站路后，母亲抱着他下了车，沿着街道回到家中，而他自始至终都闭眼沉睡。

They both read The Phantom Tollbooth at age eight and then carry the book around， fascinated by the Soundkeeper， who catalogues sounds in vaults just to enjoy the silence. They listen to “Free to Be You and Me” in the car during road trips. Daniel’s family moves to Kfar Saba when his younger brother develops a rash like butterfly wings across his cheeks. The doctor who diagnoses his brother with lupus has a son in Nicoya’s fifth-grade class. The two are friends， but Nicoya doesn’t see him again after elementary school ends.

八岁时，他俩都读了《神奇的收费亭》，对这本书爱不释手，尤其着迷于那个将声音封存于地下室、只为享受寂静的“声音守护人”。公路旅行时，他们都在车上听《自由做自己》。当弟弟脸颊出现蝴蝶翅膀般的红斑后，丹尼尔一家搬到了卡法萨巴。确诊他弟弟患有红斑狼疮的医生有个儿子与尼科娅五年级同班。两人曾是朋友，但小学毕业后再无相逢。

In the army， Nicoya works a desk job on base just outside Ra’anana; Daniel is stationed on the border in Ramallah. After serving three years， they both travel to Central America. They each find their way to Cerro Chato on different days and hike down the inside of the volcano， pushing the vines and overgrown branches aside to reach the freshwater lake. They each sit alone on a log by the shore， waiting for their fellow hikers to catch up， contemplating the dangers of wading in. The fog rolls low when they swim in the volcanic lagoon， and before they are called back to shore， he by his friends， she by her sister， there are a few moments when all they can see as they tread water is the hurling of waves against rocks and the whiteness of the cloud around them.

服兵役期间，尼科娅在赖阿南纳郊外的军事基地担任文职工作，丹尼尔则被派驻在拉姆安拉的边境地带。结束三年兵役后，两人不约而同踏上了中美洲之旅。他们在不同的日子各自寻至塞罗查托火山，沿着火山口内部小径徒步，拨开交错的藤蔓与疯长的枝桠，抵达那片淡水湖。两人都曾独自坐在湖边的枯木上，一面等待同行的徒步者，一面思忖涉水可能带来的危险。他们在火山湖中游泳时，浓雾低垂。就在被各自的同伴——他的朋友，她的妹妹——唤回岸边之前，曾有片刻时光，两人踩水四望，唯见波浪拍岩、白云围绕。

The lodge near the volcano has a traveler’s book exchange. Daniel leaves his book of Robert Frost poems in exchange for a copy of Galapagos by Vonnegut. The next traveler takes the Frost poems and leaves The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran， which Nicoya picks up and brings with her to a tiny fishing village in Nicaragua where she and her sister live for two weeks on seventeen dollars a day. A man in the village takes her out on his boat and teaches her to scale and gut a fish. He almost persuades her to stay with him， but then she reads on page nineteen that love should be the moving sea between the shores of souls， and she returns to Israel with her sister.

火山旁的旅舍有一个旅行者图书交换角。