The story begins with the introduction of one of its central protagonists, Ugwu, who is a young Igbo boy hailing from the rural village of Opiin Nigeria. The timeframe at the beginning of the narrative is the early 1960s. We are first acquainted with Ugwu as his “Aunty” is leading him to the town of Nsukka where she has found him work as a houseboy. Ugwu’s employer will be Odenigbo, who lives and teaches at the university in Nsukka, and as Ugwu has only ever seen the huts of his village, his Aunty reminds him to behave himself in his new environment and to use the utmost respect with Odenigbo.Ugwu replies that “I will learn fast” (4).

As Ugwu and his Aunty finally arrive at Odenigbo’s house, they find it to be very large and filled almost in its entirety with books. This is very surprising to Ugwu, as he has never been inside or around such a house. Aunty leaves Ugwu with Odenigbo, who is young and stout in appearance. Odenigbo wastes no time in sending Ugwu to fetch some food for him from the kitchen. Ugwu has never before encountered a refrigerator, so he is even more amazed to find an entire chicken inside of it.