It is early fall, the cold is beginning to descend, and in three months everyone in this house will be dead.
-- Narration (I)

Importance: This line from the opening page immediately establishes a tone of dark foreboding, and dramatic irony. It positions Winifred as a narrator with knowledge of future events, drawing the reader into her perspective while creating tension about how and why the deaths will occur. The matter-of-fact delivery of an extreme claim also signals the novel’s satirical, darkly comic sensibility, as it juxtaposes a genteel seasonal setting with an outrageous threat. It frames Ensor House as a site of impending violence, highlighting Winifred’s central role as both observer and agent of chaos, while also introducing the motif of the upper class being oblivious to dangers present in their own household.

Which one laughed?’ I ask. ‘Eh?’ ‘Just now, which one of them laughed?’ I am alert, the echo...
-- Andrew and Winifred (III)