Part One, p. 3-15 Summary

In the form of a long letter, an aged woman who has been diagnosed with terminal cancer tells her thoughts about the apartheid system that have bothered her all of her life. Though the woman is white and has not faced the inequalities first-hand, during the time she writes this letter, she makes some new contacts that allow her to become a witness to the reality of South Africa in the mid 1980s.

At the opening, the narrator tells of finding a homeless man camped near her garage. This occurs on the same day that the narrator gets some disturbing news from a medical doctor. The narrator tells the homeless man that he cannot stay. The man leaves, and the narrator thinks of all of the homeless in Cape Town.

The narrator reveals that she is a...