Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires connects two journeys separated by decades: Miller’s account of a wartime plan to use Jewish gold in political negotiations, and Kristín’s later passage through the city as she continues south in search of answers. In the present-day journey, it is a waypoint she reaches cautiously, then leaves behind as she travels deeper into Patagonia.

Wartime Plan

Miller explains that he sent his brother to Berlin to fly a plane carrying gold. The brothers were meant to meet in Reykjavík and travel together across the Atlantic to Argentina. The gold in the crates, he says, was Jewish gold intended to bribe the government in Buenos Aires; more was to follow. The city therefore figures in the account not as a place the brothers are shown reaching, but as the intended political destination of the scheme and the purpose behind transporting the gold.

Kristín’s Arrival and Departure

Several days into her journey through Mexico, Kristín reaches Buenos Aires after dark. She finds an affordable hotel and buys a detailed road map, marking a route south. Confident that she has arrived without being followed, she stays two days before setting off again. She sells her car, flies to Comodoro Rívadavía, and continues by bus toward the south of Argentina.

Narrative Significance

The city is a hinge between the secret wartime plan and Kristín’s present search. Miller’s account makes Buenos Aires the endpoint of a political bargain financed by the gold; Kristín’s map turns it into a practical starting point for the next leg of her own journey. Her brief stay is defined by movement and caution: she arrives at evening, plans her route, and leaves without lingering, heading south toward the island she is seeking.