Chapter 4, Eclipse Plumage Summary and Analysis

Chapter 4 begins with a conversation over lunch, telling a story about Michael's family. His mother was nine at the time and the story features his grandmother Lalla. A group of friends and relatives were at a wedding, and many of them were drunk. But the story splits into three different stories. But during the wedding, David Grenier drowns and Hilden and Trevor cannot retrieve him. Michael's nine year-old mother saw the whole thing while they were in Negombo.

In "Aunts", Michael notes that he once had great aunts who told great stories. His aunt Dolly is introduced; she is eighty when he recounts the story. She and her brother Arthur were close friends with Michael's father for his entire life. Michael speaks to her in her old house and she tells him that his grandmother Lalla, had...