Chapter 1 Summary

In Burma, during 1925, several English officials resist a directive to open their closed society somewhat by admitting a non-white member to their club. Most of the English display racist attitudes while Flory, the protagonist, lacks the moral courage to promote his Indian friend's social interests. Membership in the club brings enormous prestige, and a local corrupt Burmese official plots a far-ranging intrigue to ensure his own admission by destroying the reputation of his primary competitor. Meanwhile, the arrival of a beautiful young English woman sets many heads turning and complicates the lives of nearly everyone.

In 1925, U Po Kyin is a Subdivisional Magistrate of Kyauktada in Burma, at the time an English colony. He is fifty-six years old and enormously fat—so fat, in fact, that he requires assistance to stand from a seated position. U Po Kyin views his own fatness...