The novel opens with an invitation from the Binx’s aunt “asking [Binx] to come to lunch” (3), an event that foretells a serious conversation. Binx Bolling, the narrator and protagonist of The Moviegoer, recalls a powerful childhood memory of his aunt that takes place “when [his] older brother Scott died of pneumonia” (3), and Binx’s aunt was charged with breaking the news to Binx. This memory inspires another recollection in Binx, one of attending a movie “about a man who lost his memory in an accident” (4). Binx went to the film with a former secretary and girlfriend named Linda. Binx explains that the relationship with Linda did not last, but he now has “a new secretary, a girl named Sharon Kincaid” (5).

Binx introduces himself and offers details of his life in “Gentilly, a middle class suburb of New Orleans” (6). When Binx is not working as a stock-and-bond broker in “a small branch office of his uncle’s brokerage firm” (6), he enjoys leisure activities like watching television or going to the movies, and he spends his weekends visiting the Gulf Coast. Binx explains that his “companion on these evening outings and weekend trips is usually my secretary” (7), and he lists the three secretaries with whom he has had “love affairs…fine careless raptures” (8).