Chapters 1-7 Summary

Paula describes her life to a Guard who has come to tell her some distressing news. Over tea, she relates her childhood and the beginning of her marriage, painting a portrait of a family characterized by tough love and many children competing for parents' attention.

The story opens with Paula finding a Guard at her door, and she thinks about the many times she has heard bad news after hearing her doorbell. For years, she hated the jarring sound or it, which would drive her to slap her daughter Nicola, but she still hates even the nice new melodious doorchime that her husband Charlo bought her. With several brothers, a husband, and a son likely to get into trouble with the law, Paula has never heard anything good from a Guard. She does not recognize the young man who is obviously...