The mother slowly hands her infant to his father, who waits in the shallow end of the hotel swimming pool. The baby wears a diaper and a cloth head wrap like a chef. Grandma sits by patiently, with an expectant hope that she’ll be needed. The baby fusses and cries as his legs enter the water. Yet, the father holds his son, smiling and making happy faces in order to help his boy to keep calm. The baby’s torso twists above the water as he weeps. His mother flinches to take him back, but the father blinks in reassurance.

Watching baby’s first dip are his family and a cast of guests, including a couple in love who tread together in the deep end. In lounge chairs: a British man covered in grey chest-belly-shoulder-hair and suntan oil, a man with a daiquiri, a girl holding up a fashion magazine. But everyone…