Valerian Street Timeline and Summary

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• Valerian sits in a chair and listens to records while his butler Sydney brings him some breakfast. Valerian's favorite place to hang out is the greenhouse that's attached to his gigantic home in the Caribbean. In case we didn't know already, Valerian is pretty loaded (as in rich, not drunk).
• Valerian does everything he can to discourage his wife Margaret from luring (or guilting) their son Michael into visiting them for Christmas. He claims that Margaret is delusional and that Michael will never come.
• When his houseguest Jade scolds him for treating Margaret so badly, Valerian says he only does it because he wants his son Michael to get out from underneath Margaret's thumb.
• One evening, Valerian hears his wife screaming about an intruder in the house. He sends his butler Sydney to go check it out and is surprised when Sydney returns pointing a gun at a young black man. Instead of calling the police, though, Valerian decides to annoy everyone by inviting the intruder to sit down for dinner.
• Over the next few days, Valerian gives the intruder (named Son) one of his old suits and pays for some new shoes and a haircut for him.
• For Christmas dinner, Valerian invites not only Son, but his servants (Ondine and Sydney) to sit at his table. During the dinner, he reveals that he has fired some of the local black people who help Sydney and Ondine around the house.
• Sydney and Ondine think this is wildly inconsiderate behavior, and they tell Valerian as much. Valerian won't stand for disobedience, so he tells them they're both fired.
• During the uproar, Ondine reveals that when Valerian's son Michael was just a baby, his wife Margaret used to abuse him by sticking pins into his flesh.
• Valerian is shattered by this news, and he spends the rest of the book in a daze, feeling like his entire life has been one big lie.
• As the novel moves toward its end, Valerian becomes more and more feeble. By the end of the book, it's Sydney and Margaret who are in total control. Neither of them obeys Valerian's orders, and they basically just push him around.