Part 1, Section 1 (pages 3-25) Summary

The Book of Evidence opens with an almost dignified personal narration by a prisoner to the court. This person is covered with a blanket between the courthouse and the jail, and the narration includes a description of the remand cell where he is being held.

The novel switches to the calling of Frederick Charles St. John Vanderveld Montgomery to the stand. He says he would like to call his first witness, his wife Daphne, and he details a description of her and their relationship. He states that they have a son, who she neglects in a vacant-minded sort of a way. They lived as locals on a Mediterranean island, but he is vague about which one.

According to Montgomery's tale, he and Daphne meet an American who Montgomery calls Randolph. Randolph gives the impression that he is...