Summary

In 1948, Queenie’s neighbor complains about her willingness to rent to Black lodgers. Some of the other neighbors have already left the area because of an influx of Black immigrants; these neighbors argue that “this country no longer feels [our] own” (98). Queenie thinks about her husband, Bernard, who has not returned in the two years since the war’s end. On her first night in London, Hortense hears mice in the ceiling and bemoans her new life.

In a flashback, Gilbert trains at a military camp in the United States. At first, he believes that “America is Paradise” (106). He soon learns, however, that Jim Crow laws prevent Black soldiers from leaving the base. He describes his father, who converted from Judaism to Christianity after fighting in World War I. In England, white residents gape at Black RAF soldiers. Gilbert, who grew up idolizing...