Jim, the novel’s protagonist, is the 11-year-old son of a wealthy British family living in the International Settlement in Shanghai. He describes his experiences on December 7, 1941, the eve of Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor. He explains how he is forced, along with the other choir boys from his school, to watch the American newsreel series March of Time. Viewing things like this and British newsreel propaganda about the war has given Jim nightmares. He wonders, “[H]ad his brain been damaged by too many war films?” (5) After being driven home from Shanghai Cathedral, where the film was shown, he prepares to go with his parents to a fancy dress party hosted by one of his parents’ friends.

Jim and his parents are driven by their chauffeur Yang to the Christmas fancy dress party in Hungjao, a rural area five miles west of Shanghai. At the bottom of their drive, on Amherst Avenue, they accidentally run over the foot of a homeless beggar who has been living there for the past two months. However, it is not clear whether he is still alive. They then arrive at the checkpoint marking the end of the International Zone.