A literary narrative spanning Walt Sorensen's life: from a bullied fat child in Düsseldorf who discovers swimming, through competitive success, a post-competitive drift across Europe, twenty years in Michelin-starred kitchens, burnout and collapse, and finally-after reading obsessively about Miami's layered history of indigenous erasure, immigrant resilience, and infrastructure fragility-a recovery that culminates in Walt, at 63 with a newly-placed cardiac stent, completing an 8-mile open water swim race. The story interweaves Walt's personal transformation with Miami's own reinvention, exploring themes of persistence, embodied memory, and the refusal to stop trying.