The first chapter opens on a leisurely scene of Papa and Mama, sitting on a swinging sofa in the afternoon heat and surveying their lush gardens and extensive property. They discuss whether they just want tea and fritters, or whether they want sweets, as well. They order their daughter, Uma, the first-person narrator and protagonist, to tell the cook they have decided on sweets. However, Uma has already been ordered to make up a parcel, a Kashmir sweater, to send their son, her brother, in America. Caught in the crossfire of competing demands, Uma tries to conceal her impatience. In contrast to the parents’ fret-free leisure, Uma, a gray-haired eldest daughter, is harried, in servile fashion, with endless requests.

Uma follows this opening scene by recalling her limited information about her parents, who she calls MamandPapa, as if they were a singular unit. Although they appear to operate as a single unit, Uma recalls that their backgrounds were dramatically different. She reveals that Mama came from a large, urban merchant family where she was one of sixteen children, while Papa was the only child of a minor tax inspector from a much smaller town.