Part 1, p. 1 - 18 Summary

This short novel is the metaphor-rich story of a traditional family torn apart by the arrival of an angry, violent, destructive child. As parents Harriet and David struggle to hold together both the family and their own personal values, the narrative draws implied metaphorical parallels between that family's particular experience and the experiences of society in general, along the way also exploring the issues of idealism vs. practicality and the relationship between society and those society perceives as different.

In mid-1960's London, Harriet and David meet at an office Christmas party, where they see each other from across a room crowded with dancing, drinking people and recognize, as they study each other, that they are fundamentally quite similar (see "Quotes", p. 3), quiet and reserved people watching quietly as the sex-and-drugs Sixties spin and whirl around them. Narration describes...