Content Warning: This guide refers to anti-gay bias and language, racism, racial slurs, and other archaic language to refer to racial and ethnic groups, sexism, adultery, and discussion of rape and violence, including gun violence.

Doornfontein, South Africa, 1947

The novel opens with Lesley Hamlyn’s recollection of a comment made by Willie Maugham, the name she uses for real-life author W. Somerset Maugham, about how stories endure over time. Despite the many years since she has seen or thought about Willie, Lesley remembers him clearly.

Lesley receives a package, which she expects to be for her late husband. To her surprise, it’s for her. She chats with Johan, the postal worker, who casually references how Lesley is considered an “outsider,” even after 25 years spent living in South Africa. Lesley inspects the postmarks; the package has been sent to several addresses before reaching her. It contains a copy of The Casuarina Tree by W. Somerset Maugham. There is no note to indicate a sender, but the package originated in Penang, Malaysia. As she opens the book, Lesley feels transported back to Malaysia, or Malaya, as it was called in 1947. She notices a glyph that Maugham commonly uses, though this one is altered.