Summary

The novel begins with a conversation between four court members—The Queen’s Remembrancer, a Junior Judge, a Senior Judge, and The Common Sergeant—in the “Benchers’ luncheon-room of the Inner Temple” (3). This first mini-chapter is titled “Scene: Inner Temple,” and takes the form of a play dialogue introducing a missing fifth character, referred to variously as “Filth,” “Old Filth,” “Feathers.” From this dialogue, the reader begins to form a picture of Filth: his wealth made practicing law in the East, his great looks, an interesting yet apparently straightforward past—“Child of the Raj, public school, Oxford, the Bar” (4). We learn that “Filth” is an acronym —“Failed In London Try Hong Kong”— which, we are told, was made up by this absent character.

In “The Donheads,” the author introduces the man himself. The novel’s third person narrator...