Chapters 1, 2 and 3 Summary

This novel, a blend of coming of age narrative and espionage thriller, tells the story of Leonard Marnham, a young British postal worker and unexpected government agent in Berlin in the months following the end of World War II. As he finds himself caught up in a web of tensions spun between the American and British allies, he also discovers the joys of love and sexuality, with the two aspects of his life coming together in a horrific, intense climax. Both these narrative lines are, on some level, defined by the narrative's examination of the complex relationships between conquered and conqueror.

In Chapter 1, in a meeting with an impatient British Army officer, postal service employee Leonard Marnham, newly arrived in post World War II Berlin, is told that he and the equipment with which he is to work have been handed...