Summary

The unnamed West Indian narrator tells his story as he is traveling to his brother's wedding on a rainy day in London. He is with a white man named Frank, who looks out for him, and whose presence the narrator both resents and appreciates. He remembers a day in 1954 or 1955 when his brother was sick, and recalls the donkey cart and lorry the family used as their primary means of income. He contrasts his old house with a scene he had seen in movie, "Rebecca," thinking of how that image entered his dream. He talks about his ordinary life and how he had decided his brother, Dayo, would live a better life. He came from an illiterate family, and the hopes rested on Dayo. There is a memory of a man who had built a big house that fascinated the...