Luke Hagstrom, Barney Roth, and Kate, upperclassmen at George Mason High School, return for the first day of the school year. They are greeted by the principal, Michael “Mighty Mike” Moore, who goes out of his way to be jovial with all the students. He continually refers to everybody with phrases like “good buddy” (2), and he pats their shoulders and laughs often. The students are irritated by him, perceiving that his cheerfulness is just posturing.

They discuss a staffing change: Karen Salters, the former librarian, quit abruptly at the end of the previous year because she allegedly could not stand working with Mike. The new librarian, Deirdre Fitzgerald, is excited to start the job. A history teacher, Nora Baines, comes to see Deirdre in the library before school. Saying, “I feel like the bad fairy at the christening” (4), she warns Deirdre that Mike will not support the librarian if parents criticize library books or ask the librarian to remove books.

In the first history class of the year, Nora tells her students they will be reading novels as well as history books. She lectures about Alexis de Tocqueville, the French intellectual who came to the United States in the early 19th century and wrote about the way conformity in the US had already begun to ruin independence of thought among American citizens.