Summary

In the prologue, Sibylla describes her father’s acceptance to Harvard. Her grandfather, a minister, encourages his atheist son to attend a seminary to “give the other side a fair chance” (3). Sibylla’s father spends much of his time in the seminary playing pool with a friend, Buddy. He wins a large sum of money playing pool against a stranger, who encourages Sibylla’s father to invest in property. Harvard revokes its admission offer. Sibylla’s father begins to give money to strangers in the hopes that they will win a fortune and prove that “it was not absolutely certain that [his father] had destroyed him” (9). He resolves to open a chain of motels. He meets Buddy’s sister, with whom he will have Sibylla.

Part I opens with a summary of Akira Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai. Sibylla, an American...