College professor Jack Gladney watches a long procession of station wagons drive through the campus of College-on-the-Hill in the town of Blacksmith. Observing the vibrant and healthy young students as they unpack their parents’ cars for yet another school year, Jack takes note of the wealthy confidence surrounding these people as they handle various junk foods, pieces of technology, and medications. Jack is the head of the Hitler Studies department—a field he founded—and he has made a point of watching the students arrive on campus each Fall for the past 21 years. After taking in the spectacle, he returns home to tell his wife Babette that she has once again missed the fantastic parade. As he describes to her the mannerisms of the rich parents he watched, she remarks, “I have trouble imagining death at that income level,” a remark that inspires a conversation about the impact of riches on one’s perception of mortality.
Jack and Babette live in a house at the end of a peaceful street that overlooks an expressway in the distance. Four children “by previous marriages” live with them: Heinrich, Steffie, Denise, and Wilder. As such, children and teenagers alike drift through the house, tuning into the radio, answering the phone, watching TV, or engaging in conversations ranging from the health concerns of Babette’s diet to the effects of various chemicals on lab rats. Jack and Babette take part in these conversations, often verbally sparring with their children and finding themselves intellectually challenged by their rhetoric. They also have deep private conversations in their bedroom at night. As they lie in bed, they often wonder who will die first, arguing over which of them would be more traumatized by losing the other.
