Lovesick at the beachside condo

Before that, a dream, which turned out to be a novel that I was reading (as commented on by Roy as the dream was wrapping up). The setting was probably a beachside city on the west coast, in the 70's or 80's. The exact background story is lost to me now, but basically, a lovesick blonde woman, probably in her thirties, had gone down to her balcony (the lower floor on a two-story flat, many floors above ground level) to contemplate jumping off.

Meanwhile, the guy she loves (seemed like some identification with my father) is coming to look for her. For whatever reason, he visits the next door neighbor first. As he's finally headed down to her, I fall out to Roy commenting on the novel that I'm reading. I catch a glimpse of the text and remember one of the syllables was "sou", and I'm pretty sure the whole thing was written in a toneless pinyin.