Chapter 1 Summary

As the story opens, John James Todd says that his mother died giving birth to him in 1899. He says his "first act upon entering this world was to kill my mother" and that this - his first day of life, - was the beginning of "all my misfortunes." His father was lecturing students the day he was born. John says that his father is incapable of loving him because John's mere existence is a reminder of his wife's death. John says his efforts to please his father last his entire life. The last time they are together, John's father - Innes McNeil Todd - is in his eighties and John is in his forties. When his father tells John he should get a haircut, John says his father is right.

Innes is a surgeon at the Royal Infirmary and an anatomy professor at...