Section 1 (through page 27) Summary

On March 7, 1974, Kaspar Joachim Utz dies of a second stroke in his apartment at No. 5 Siroka Street, overlooking the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague, Czechoslovakia. Three days later, early in the morning, his friend Dr. Vaclav Orlik is outside the Church of Sigismund, waiting for the hearse. The hearse arrives at 8 a.m. In order to divert the people's attention from retrograde Christian rituals, those rituals must be over by 8:30. Utz planned his own funeral with care. White carnations cover the coffin, over which a wreath of Bolshevik vulgarity with red flowers and ribbons has been placed, with a condolence card from the Director of the Rudolfine Museum and his staff, to which Orlik adds pink carnations. The hearse carries pallbearers - night-shift employees of a rubber factory who work for the undertaker by day - and a woman...