Jean Paget

Medium-tall, dark haired, and graceful, Paget is the novel's protagonist. In the first part, she narrates to her elderly London lawyer, Noel Strachan, her harrowing experiences on the Malay Peninsula during World War II. Before the war, Paget and brother Donald go to Malaya, where their father manages a rubber plantation until his accidental death. She is working in an office in Kuala Lumpur, enjoying the high life, when the Japanese invade and take her captive in a group of 40 refugees. She emerges a natural leader of the women and children on a terrible "death march" around the peninsula, during which they meet a brash Australian POW, Joe Harman. He barters stolen gasoline for medicine and drugs for the women successfully, but gets caught stealing the commandant's prized chickens, for which he is crucified, flogged, and left for dead. After the war, on advice from her lawyer...