Chapters 1-5 Summary

In Chapter 1, Beatrice Pymm, a spinster in Suffolk, England, is murdered as she returns home from a day of painting by the river. Her murderer is a woman who is also a German spy. It is November of 1938, and the spy has chosen Beatrice in an intricate plot to enter England unnoticed and become a deep cover spy for Germany. Beatrice is buried in a shallow grave, meant to be discovered, and her face is beaten beyond recognition. The identification papers of a young Dutch woman, the murderer's previous cover, are scattered nearby. After burying Pymm, the spy takes the stolen van to a nearby field and burns it, then leaves on a motorcycle. She is confident that no one will consider the murder and the burning van to be related.

In Chapter 2, the Lauterbach family is gathered at the huge...