Summary

As the book opens, Jack Boughton, a self-described white outsider and “bum,” is walking alongside Della Miles, a black high-school teacher and preacher’s daughter, after an evening spent out together (7). Della comments that she noticed a couple of men who were following him, and Jack explains that they were trying to collect on his debt. He tells her that how ridiculous it is that she, a “woman with excellent prospects in life,” would be hanging around with him, “a confirmed, inveterate bum” (7). They part, and he tells her that he will return her books. A week later, Della returns home from school and finds her copy of Hamlet on her porch step. Inside, there is a note that says, “long farewell” (7).

After not seeing Della for a year, Jack sees her in a cemetery and cannot believe that she is really there. They...