Summary

The novel opens with an epigraph, a quotation by nineteenth-century historian F. W. Maitland and another by Adolf Hitler about 1938. A map of the Führerbau in Munich follows.

On Tuesday, September 27th, 1938, British bureaucrat Hugh Legat waits for his wife at the Ritz as he reads the news of Hitler’s latest speech, underlining important passages. Legat is only 28 years old, but his dress is old-fashioned. He checks his pocket watch, but Pamela Legat finally arrives. He watches her objectively as she searches for their table. She kisses him and apologizes, but he does not question her whereabouts. She places a box on the table, and he opens it, expecting an anniversary present. The sight of gas masks for their children stuns him.

Pamela asks about the ongoing crisis, and Legat expresses both hope that the talks in Berlin will...