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John LaChiusa said his musical was inspired by New York after the September 11 th attacks, and that Charlotte’s struggle to quit smoking is "a metaphor for the crises that force people to reconsider who they are and what is important... After 9/11 nobody was thinking about how to get rich and famous. You wanted to be around the people you love. . . you realize that you don't always have to swim upstream and battle the elements. When you're little fish in a big pond, it's safer to swim in schools.”
Charlotte, a short-story writer in New York, is recovering from a broken relationship with Robert, and needs to start life anew. To help her give up cigarettes, her friends Marco and Kathy suggest various activities, such as collecting dolls or a new drug. However she opts for swimming. Ploughing up and down the pool at the YMCA she is haunted by her past mistakes and missed opportunities. She reflects on her childhood heroine, Anne Frank, who materialises to warn her about flotsam: emotional "debris" that blocks the flow of life. Charlotte gradually realises she has been addicted not just to cigarettes but to "fleeing", and, with this new knowledge, she is able to connect with her friends and her writing, and start life anew.