The novel opens with a flashback to a time before the novel was written. It is the morning of the murder, and the narrator is talking to a French man who lives near his place. The narrator asks the man about his life, and learns that the man is married to a high school student. The man is now a policeman, but he is still suffering from the effects of his wife's infidelity. The French man tells the narrator that he has been accused of being a murderer, but the narrator does not believe him. He tells the French man that he is innocent, and that he will do what he can to get out of the country.