We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.
Tom Stoppard, Rosencrantz and Gildenstern are Dead
In some stories, the opening starts just before a moment of change. In some it starts just after some sort of change. Often in mysteries, the prologue is in the villain’s point of view and Chapter One opens in the protagonist’s point of view. The villain prologue often establishes that a crime took place and Chapter One introduces the protagonist and how he/she will be affected by the crime.
But always, always, there is a bridge to cross. In every story, there’s a bridge.