In these few pages, the first thing that is seemingly established is the setting, which was a bright early morning, and included the first of many mentions of "the rose walk". The characters are also established in these few pages. They include Tara, Bimla, Bakul, Raja, Baba and Aunt Mira along with a few others. Tara was the oldest of the Daw family, followed by Raja, Tara and Baba who was the youngest.
Here is it seen that Tara and her husband, Bakul, who have two daughters, have come to visit Old Delhi, where Tara realises that nothing has changed since she left. For example, the fact that all the rooms and the veranda look the same, as well as the fact that Baba continues to play the same old records every day.
Bim and Tara tried to get Baba to go to the office that he ha not gone to in years. He eventually got dressed and stood by the road and contemplated on if to cross or not. Reminiscing on all the bad times he had tried to cross the road and this present encounter with horses and carts made him run back to the house stumbling a few times looking scared.
It was found that Bim was a history teacher who was firm, rough, aggressive and authoritative, whereas Tara was gentle, weak-willed and quiet.
Further on, Bim remembers the fun times she and Raja had in the dunes playing in the sand and getting ferry rides and now that Raja married Hyder Ali's daughter they barely ever talked at all.
Pages 44-50 show the introduction of the partition as a flashback, where there were fires that lit up the city in flames one summer when Raja was sick. Raja had studied Urdu since Hindi was not considered a language of good pedigree, and the Hyder Ali's would invite him to visit the house regularly to read in the library and spend time with them.
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