Margaret Street Timeline and Summary

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• Margaret first appears in the book when she comes downstairs in her husband's Caribbean house. Valerian thinks she is secretly an alcoholic because she always seems to be getting confused, but his butler Sydney assures him that he never brings her alcohol.
• Margaret makes a bunch of plans for getting their son, Michael, to come visit them for Christmas. Apparently, Michael always says he'll come but never does. Valerian wishes that Margaret would just leave their son alone.
• Margaret, though, says she's sick of living in isolation on Valerian's island. She wants to leave and move in with Michael. Valerian makes her promise not to do this unless Michael agrees to it.
• We find out why Valerian suspects Margaret of alcoholism one evening at dinner, when Margaret has trouble recognizing everyday objects (like spoons) and knowing how to use them. There definitely seems to be something wrong with her brain that she isn't telling anyone about.
• Margaret decides that for Christmas dinner, she'll take over responsibilities in the kitchen and make everyone's meal. When Michael doesn't show up, though, she abandons her plans and leaves the cook Ondine to whip something up on short notice.
• At Christmas dinner, Ondine gets into an argument with Valerian and ends up outing Margaret for abusing her son Michael when he was just a baby. Margaret doesn't deny the accusation, but refuses to believe that she has done her son any lasting damage.
• Over the new few days and weeks, Margaret takes little opportunities to explain herself to her husband, Valerian. But Valerian is in a state of constant shock and it doesn't look like he'll ever be able to forgive her.