Summary

In Chapter 4, time shifts back to Allan's childhood. Allan was born in 1905 in Sweden. His father, a firm socialist with a short temper, moved alone to Russia to fight in the Russian Revolution. When Allan's mother received word of Allan's father's death, she stoically said to her son that whatever would be, would be. Soon thereafter, Allan's mother died. Allan, who had mastered the art of explosives at a young age, used the small inheritance she left him to form a dynamite detonation company which was successful.

Gustavsson, a local merchant who once cheated Allan's family, accidentally drove his car onto a farm field in which Allan was testing an explosive. Gustavsson was killed in the resulting explosion, and Allan placed in an asylum for 4 years. As part of his confinement, Allan was sterilized by Professor Lundborg, a believer in eugenics. Allan was...