Summary

In Chapter 1, Mrs. Harris boarded her flight to Paris and watched from the plane window as the streets of London became out of focus and distant. She was hesitant to travel to a different country, remembering the stories of French people who “were particularly inclined to crimes of passion and dismembered bodies in trunk” (3). Mrs. Harris did not allow the lewd stories to deter her trip and resolved to avoid interacting with anyone during her travels. She accepted the help of a British airway employee who helped her into a cab and drove her to the House of Christian Dior.

In the cab, Mrs. Harris worried that her friend, Mrs. Butterfield, would not be able to manage looking after all her clients while she was away. Mrs. Harris worked as a charwoman, a cleaning lady, for an extensive list of clients including...