Section I (pages 0-30) Summary

Introduction—The main character Richard moves back to the U.S. to the town of U. after living abroad in the Netherlands. He receives a one year appointment to work as a visiting teacher at Center for the Study of Advanced Sciences through the notoriety of his most recent book. He is currently working on another book and hopes to complete it during his time at the center.

In section I Richard gets settled into his new offices at the Center and re-acclimatizes himself to living in U. Richard at first attempts to fade into anonymity and spends a great deal of time browsing the internet and thinking about his book. Eventually he takes to wandering the halls of the center at night. During one of his strolls he is drawn to the office of Philip...