Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary

It is January in 1930s London. We meet two characters, Anna and St. Quentin, who are deep in conversation while walking across an icy footbridge in Regent's Park.

As they stroll, Anna tells St. Quentin a story of how she accidentally came across the diary of a girl living with her, Portia. She is unsettled and annoyed by the situation because she didn't mean to find the diary; she had found it while putting a dress away in Portia's room after it had come back from the cleaners.

Perhaps even more importantly, Anna says that she is annoyed with Portia's mere presence, although she isn't sure what she can do about it, being that Portia is her husband Thomas's sister.

When Anna runs through the circumstances yet again, there seems to have been no alternative but for Portia to come stay...