Chapters 1-4 Summary

The novel takes place in the year 2003. Most of the events in the novel take place in a single week in July of 2003, but the narrator takes the reader back to the spring of 2003 several times to describe the events surrounding a trip to Washington D.C. and the subsequent visits with a therapist.

In Chapter 1, James is at home with his sister Gillian when their mother returns unexpectedly from her honeymoon. James' mother has been married before, this being her third marriage. James' mother has returned without her new husband, suggesting that something has gone wrong, but James is unaware of what this might be at this point. James calls his boss at his mother's art gallery, John Webster, who closed the gallery in the owner's absence because of a lack of patronage, to warn him of his mother's return...