The Dutch House was built by the VanHoebeeks, a family that made its money in cigarettes. By 1946, the entire VanHoebeek family was dead. Cyril bought the house fully furnished in 1946 and brought his wife Elna and daughter Maeve to live in the house. Danny came along five years later. Elna and Cyril’s marriage dissolved sometime after. Eventually, Cyril met and married Andrea.

Danny recalls the day he and Maeve meet Andrea for the first time. Andrea is blonde, much younger than their father, and more interested in the house than the people in it; Andrea’s distaste for the children is apparent even on this first visit, which is cut short by Cyril when the tension between his children and girlfriend makes him uncomfortable.

Danny also recalls the first time after their expulsion that he and Maeve parked outside of the house to spy on Andrea, Norma, and Bright. Danny was 15 and on break from Choate, a pricey boarding school in Connecticut. Although Patchett doesn’t provide details on why the two are stuck on the outside looking in, the Conroy children are unable to enter their childhood home, and there is some bitterness in the way they watch Andrea and her daughters.