Part 1: Chapters 1 - 9 Summary

The Eye in the Door is the story of a young army lieutenant named Billy Prior. Prior lives in London during WWI. After being discharged from Craiglockhart War Hospital in Edinburgh, Billy is assigned to the domestic Intelligence Unit of the Ministry of Munitions. Billy is under the care of psychiatrist William Rivers. Billy, like so many other soldiers at the time, suffers from shell-shock and anxiety. The novel chronicles Billy's journey from fragmentation and uncertainty to wholeness and a semblance of acceptance. Billy Prior learns that the war in the trenches is not the only battle he will fight.

In Chapter 1, Billy and Myra take a walk along the Serpentine. Myra is a married woman whose husband is fighting on the French Front. Billy tries to convince Myra to have sex with him in a thick of trees...