The woman at the station is a fellow immigrant who helps the man access the flying boat public transit system. The food seller and his wife hid in a sewer hole then escaped by rowboat. The food seller explains that giant men with vacuums walked over the city, sucking up the tiny humans at their feet. The happy family escaped extermination in the place they are from. The food seller is happy to give the man samples, and invites him to have dinner with him, his wife, and his son. His food is peculiar looking to the man, as it all seems to be organic shapes that blur the line between vegetable and animal. He keeps his products in many little drawers and cupboards covered in symbols. The food seller is a man who runs an outdoor food market. She happily offers directions to a new immigrant holding a map. After becoming used to life in the new country, she goes out alone with the family pet.

The daughter is elementary-school-age and wears a wool hat with a pattern. The man's daughter, like his wife, stays behind in the old country while he looks for work and gets established in the foreign land. She wears a neckerchief over her head when out in public. The man's wife stays behind in the old country to look after the daughter until the man has earned enough money for them to emigrate. By the end of the book, the creature is treated as a beloved pet by the man's entire family. Although the man seeks at first to fight the creature, the creature endears itself to him, following him like an obedient dog. It is living in a crock in the man's rented room when the man moves in.

The man's pet is a strange creature that looks like a cross between a tadpole and a dog. The man eventually earns enough money to send for his wife and daughter, with whom he is elated to reunite. He often looks at a family portrait he has taken with him. Failing to find work anywhere else, he takes a job doing quality control in a factory.

Along the way, he struggles to understand the unfamiliar culture and language, but soon makes friends with other immigrants who have settled there. Dressed formally in a dark suit and fedora, the man leaves his wife and daughter behind to establish a new life in another country. The man is the nameless protagonist of The Arrival.

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