Content Warning: The novel contains racial slurs, as well as depictions of violence, suicide, and incarceration.

The narrator claims that she did not intend to write this story, though recent events compelled her to record the events of her adolescence, 36 years ago. She conducted careful research in recounting these events, relying not only on her own recollections but also on the memories of others involved, as well as scholarly texts. She thanks those who helped her in this task and makes an impassioned appeal to the reader for their understanding.

In 1972, the narrator is 16 and living in Amsterdam with her father, Paul, an ambassador. She has almost forgotten her childhood in the US and barely remembers her mother, who died when she was an infant. She is well cared for by her father and their housekeepers. She spends time in her father’s library, where she happens upon an old book and “an envelope of yellowing papers” (5). She begins to read the first letter, from 1930. The note indicates that the recipient of the letter will be the heir to some sort of evil.

The narrator is curious about the letters and asks her father to take her on his next diplomatic mission.