44 pages 1 hour read

Nina de Gramont

The Christie Affair

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Pages 32-82Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Pages 32-52 Summary: “Here Lies Sister Mary”

Nan reaches back through time to her days in Ireland; she’s pregnant and being taken to a convent. Going farther back, she recalls how she first came to Ireland, visiting relatives who had a farm there: her uncle Jack, her aunt Rosie, and her cousin Seamus. She meets Finbarr and his dog Alby. Nan loves life in Ireland so much that she returns there every summer as she grows up, growing closer with Finbarr. In between summers, she lives with her family of two parents and three sisters including the beautiful Colleen.

Returning to Ireland, she spends more time with Finbarr and admits to him that she would like to become a writer. As war looms, Finbarr enlists and comes to say goodbye to Nan, giving her a Claddagh ring. She promises to send him a photo of her, reveling in the joy of being loved by a soldier.

Pages 53-63 Summary: “The Disappearance”

Agatha reels from the loss of her husband, still hoping for reconciliation. She walks with her maid Honoria and Teddy towards Teddy’s school and recounts episodes of her education. Honoria tries to convince Agatha to move on from Archie. Teddy walks ahead of them and meets a man who gives her a carved figure of a dog.

Archie does not come home, and Agatha falls to pieces. Meanwhile, Nan and Archie are away on a weekend trip to visit two friends, Noel and Ursula Owen. Nan is still wearing Finbarr’s Claddagh ring. At night, Archie sneaks into Nan’s room to spend the night with her.

Pages 64-66 Summary: “The Disappearance”

Miss Annabelle Oliver is experiencing hot flashes. She wakes and remembers that she has a party to attend, so she gets into her car and drives off. She experiences a sudden pain and drives off the road, banging her head. As she steps out, she realizes that she only imagined the party, before slipping back into confusion. Miss Oliver leaves the car and lies down, feeling ill.

Pages 67-75 Summary: “The Disappearance”

Nan and Archie are at the Owens’ when a phone call comes for Archie—Honoria has called to tell him that Agatha is missing. The police arrive requesting that Archie come back to his house; he and Nan return, separately, to Styles. Nan finds her book still wrapped and goes upstairs to give it to Teddy. They read it and fall asleep together. Honoria wakes Nan, and Archie tells her that Agatha’s car has been found abandoned. He claims that Agatha is punishing him. Nan reflects on what it would mean for her if Agatha were found dead.

Pages 76-82 Summary: “The Disappearance”

The police investigate the scene where Agatha’s car was left. Nan calls Archie to check in; he suggests they stay out of contact until the mystery surrounding Agatha is past. Nan packs for an upcoming trip to Harrogate, mulling over Agatha’s disappearance, and over the last time she saw Finbarr. He went to Australia. Nan wrote to him recently and told him about her plans with Archie but did not receive a response. She does not know if the letter ever reached him.

Pages 32-82 Analysis

This section revisits Nan’s past as she tries to justify her actions toward the Christies. Despite being the story’s protagonist, she has been kept intentionally one-dimensional to this point. The reader knows enough to understand that there is a connection between her actions and her earlier experiences in Ireland, but there is no indication yet of what that connection might be. Moving farther back in time, Nan is shown to be a rambunctious tomboy—another image in conflict with the feminine seductress she becomes in the story. The two timelines compound these contrasts in her character, building up to the dramatic question of what changed and why.

This section also introduces the reader to Finbarr, who, though not as central to the plot as the other characters, plays a key role in its direction. Had Nan never met him, none of the story’s events would have played out as they did. His character, too, becomes a study in contrast. Early on he is shown as being happy and carefree before time strips him of this disposition. Nan begins to fall in love, first with the country and then with the boy, sealing her fate before even imagining it. At her home in England, we get to know Nan’s sisters; Colleen’s story will play a part in the direction Nan takes.

In “The Disappearance,” Agatha processes the loss of her husband, although of course this is still through the eyes of our narrator Nan. Here Nan explores the psychology of her friend and rival, unraveling what she would do based on what Nan knows of her. Within this narrative, Teddy finds her way in, and the narrative asks questions about her thoughts, dreams, and imaginings. It feels as if these thoughts are an extension of Agatha’s words, that the questions are coming from her; later, we understand that these questions are more likely coming from Nan, whose mind is drifting to Teddy at that moment.

Teddy meets the strange man who later turns out to be Finbarr, taking an opportunity to see the girl for himself. Agatha and her maid are not overly concerned: “Strangers always seemed to take to Teddy. Once on the beach at Torquay a woman had scooped her up and hugged her” (56). Later we learn that this woman was Nan, and this moment brought her life and Agatha’s together.

Nan continues her narration, recounting how she and Chilton would later put their accounts together to form a whole. A brief interlude follows in which an elderly woman, Miss Annabelle Oliver, has a car wreck. This account is, of course, complete fiction that Nan has created about the woman who left Agatha and Finbarr their getaway car. Later, Nan and Teddy have their first intimate moment, falling asleep together with a story. The reader feels Nan’s affection and warmth for the girl but doesn’t yet understand why this moment is so important to her. In retrospect, we can see why both needed this connection. Later we will see more hints in Nan’s thoughts about how Teddy is faring under the weight of the disappearance.

This section closes with a turn into the present moment: “Wherever you may be sitting, reading these pages, however much time has passed” (76), reminding us that the ending to Agatha’s story has already been written. There is no threat that she may have been killed; the intrigue of the story is not in its ending but in the road it takes to get there.