The novel begins abruptly when an unnamed narrator finds himself in a long line of people in a dreary, gray town: “I seemed to be standing,” he narrates, “in a busy queue by the side of a long, mean street” (1). As he waits, some of the other people drift away from the line. Some argue, with a large, bullying man even resorting to physical violence against a smaller man. The narrator observes these abandoners happily, excited to get closer to the front.

When a gleaming bright bus driven by a similarly gleaming driver arrives, the narrator endures the selfish pushing and shoving of his fellow riders in order to get a spot. A “tousle-haired youth” takes the seat next to him and confides they are the only two on the bus who don’t fit in with the other riders’ “appalling lack of any intellectual life” (5). To the narrator’s dismay, the youth produces a manuscript he has written that he wants the narrator to read and critique; the narrator begins making an excuse about not having his spectacles but is saved from further comment when the riders excitedly realize the bus is taking off.