The opening lines is "Ten days after the war ended, my sister Laura drove a car off a bridge". A first line that belongs in the league of great opening lines such as Camus's "My mother died yesterday, or was it the day before?" (The Stranger). In Chapter One, Iris, the narrator, recounts the death of her sister, Laura Chase, in 1945. The chapters are very short and the next, in its entirely, is the inquest report, proclaiming the death accidental. What follows is The Blind Assassin, a novel within the novel: a sci-fi story told to each other (and to the reader) by two unnamed lovers who meet in dingy back street rooms. The next chapter is a newspaper article from 1947 announcing the discovery on a sailboat of the dead body of Richard Griffen, a wealthy, distinguished industrialist and husband to the narrator.

And thus the novel proceeds layer by layer with a breathtaking pace, short sentences, fueled by the colloquialisms and cliches of the period of the 1930's to the 1940's. It is an absolutely stunning performance.