Book 1: Chapter 1 - Chapter 3 Summary

This chapter sets the scene of a small town college, where the students are returning to school. The parents look similar and the students perform the same acts that similar students have performed in years past. We are introduced to Jack Gladney, the chairman of the department of Hitler Studies. He has been a professor here for 22 years. Babette is introduced as Jack's wife. She has missed the usual parade of children and the parents' cars as they drop them off for school. Jack explains their relationship and how she tends to their children, teaches about Posture and volunteers to read to the blind. Heinrich, Denise, Steffie and Wilder all come into the picture as well as they sit down for lunch together. This is the very picture of a normal, happy family. However, the smoke alarm...