Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary

It is night, and an American troopship convoy lies off the coast of Anopopei, a fictional Japanese island in the Pacific Ocean. A soldier wakes in his cramped bunk, sandwiched between layers of similar bunks and surrounded by dangling equipment, and he goes to sit and smoke in the latrine, enjoying the coolness there, and wishing it was dawn.

A group of five men is on deck, playing seven-card stud – Wilson, Gallagher and Staff Sergeant Croft, and two orderlies. Wilson is enjoying phenomenally good luck, and has won nearly a hundred Australian pounds, a currency that he does not really understand.

Croft is sullen because he has had poor hands all evening and has lost some money.

Wilson regrets that he cannot buy any liquor, even with all the money he has won. He tells the other men that he is...