We have changed our privacy policy. In addition, we use cookies on our website for various purposes. By continuing on our website, you consent to our use of cookies. You can learn about our practices by reading our privacy policy.

Orange Is the New Black Chapter 1 Summary

How It All Goes Down

Are You Gonna Go My Way?

  • Piper is in the International baggage claim of Brussels airports waiting to claim her luggage (and her sprouts).
  • It's 1993, she is twenty-four, and she's nervous that someone is going to catch her smuggling ten grand of undeclared drug money into the country. For the record, that is what we'd call a legit concern.
  • Her bag doesn't arrive with her flight, but it does arrive, and she hightails it out of there.
  • Flashback to graduation: Smith College, 1992.
  • Piper is now bored with life and needs some adventure. What better than a lesbian drug dealer named Nora Jansen who looks less like Laura Prepon and more like "a white Eartha Kitt" (1.14) with a voice to match.
  • Nora and Piper date a bit, but Piper decides to move to San Francisco.
  • Before she can make a beeline for the Golden Gate Bridge, Nora asks her if she wants to go to Indonesia. Um, yes. Yes she does.
  • Piper almost gets stuck in Paris (Nora forgot to book her a ticket to Bali) but eventually makes it, where she hangs out with Nora and her drug buddies, jumping off waterfalls (at least they're not chasing them). 
  • Piper becomes one of those drug buddies, too, helping retrieve money wires when cash runs low.
  • Finally, we're back to where we started: the Brussels airport. Piper realizes that she's only an asset to Nora as a money runner and drug mule, so she leaves her and moves to California, putting her "criminal life" (1.65) behind her.