The novel begins at the home of the Grants. The Grants are Barons, meaning that they belong among the super-elite class, which hoards most of the country’s resources and controls the government. The Grants have only one surviving son, Smits, having lost their other son, Lee, in a skiing accident not long ago. To turn the tragedy into something good, Mr. and Mrs. Grant gave their son’s name to a shadow child named Luke, allowing him to come out of hiding and attend school like a legal child. To keep up the appearances of familial love, the Grants send Smits to Luke’s school, Hendricks’ School for Boys, for a visit. Accompanied by a bodyguard named Oscar, he sullenly agrees, still distraught over the loss of his brother, embittered by the substitution of Luke, which he sees as a decision to replace the real Lee. At the school, Smits tells Luke (who passes publicly as “Lee”) a number of fond memories about his brother.
