And, of course, Hastings sees Emily, whom he hasn't seen in a very long time. He meets Cynthia, who works at the hospital dispensary compounding medicines Evelyn Howard, a senior member of the staff at Styles, who also works at a hospital and is a close, longtime friend of Emily Ingethorp's Alfred Inglethorp, Eve's distant cousin, an employee of one of Emily's foundations, and, as of recently, Emily's new husband and Dorcas, Emily's loyal maidservant. Lawrence instead spends his time and family's money writing and publishing poems, which John says are not very good. Hastings meets John's brother, Lawrence, a physician by training, but not in practice.
Once he arrives at Styles, Hastings is immediately taken with John's wife, Mary, to whom he confesses he has always wanted to be a detective. In the course of their conversation, John invites Hastings to stay at Styles for the duration of his leave, and Hastings takes him up on the offer. John is sure that the man is a scoundrel, only in it for the money. John catches Hastings up on his family drama-John's stepmother, Emily, has married again, this time to a man twenty years her junior. At some point between his stay at the convalescent home and his two months of leave, Hastings runs into John Cavendish, an old acquaintance.
So, Hastings recounts the summer he spent at Styles after being injured in WWI and recuperating in a convalescent home. Hastings alludes to a sensational crime that took place at Styles Court and has dominated the regional news cycle for an entire summer, and he claims to have been asked by the Cavendish family, the proprietors of the estate, to write a true account of the whole affair to dispel any lingering rumors. The novel begins with a brief explanation-provided by its narrator, Arthur Hastings-of why it's being written.
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