An epigraph, which precedes Chapter 1, comprises a quote by the philosopher Epictetus. It prescribes how one ought to know oneself and present oneself accordingly.

Louisa Clark, a young Englishwoman, arrives in New York City to begin work as a social secretary to a wealthy family. Louisa is acting upon the advice of a past client, Will Traynor, whom she eventually fell in love with before he died. He had urged Louisa to live life to the fullest and “say yes” to new things.

Louisa’s friend Nathan, who found her the job, greets her at the airport. On the way to her new place of employment, Nathan and Louisa chat about Louisa’s current boyfriend back in England—Sam, a paramedic—and Nathan fills Louisa in about their employers: Leonard Gopnik and his new wife Agnes.

The Gopniks—an “average dysfunctional multimillionaire family” (6)—stay at the Lavery, a co-op on the Upper East Side, which exclusively houses old money families of the city. Flats are only passed down generationally, and the Gopniks have owned their apartment since its construction. Louisa meets Ashok, the building’s warm and friendly doorman, and Ilaria, the Gopniks’ housekeeper. Ilaria is unfriendly to Louisa and refuses to acknowledge Mr.