Summary

The book opens with a memory from the narrator, Philip Hutton, of how a soothsayer had come to tell him that he “was born with the gift of rain” (1). Philip reveled in this memory and it brought him to another: the day that he met Michiko Murakami. She came to Philip’s house on Penang on a rainy evening, bearing a package. Philip invited her in for dinner, only barely remembering who she was. She was a friend of his friend, a Japanese man named Endo-san. Philip and Mchiko ate their dinner out on the terrace, as the rain had stopped. They made a toast to Endo-San. Michiko revealed that her husband had just died. Philip offered his condolences. The story continued with Michiko inheriting the priority shares of her husband’s company, but being so inconsolable, she had locked herself up...