Ida Partenza is the ghostwriter Bevel hires in 1938 to write his autobiography. Partenza’s memoir begins in 1985 when she—now a 70-year-old acclaimed journalist and writer—returns to the Bevel mansion, which has since been converted into an art museum. She returns to inspect the Bevels’ recently released personal papers, in which she hopes to find the truth about Bevel, Mildred, and their relationship—a truth Bevel carefully hid from Partenza. 

Chapter 2 returns to the day in 1938 when Partenza responded to the call for a secretary at Bevel’s offices in downtown Manhattan. Partenza is 23 and lives with her father in a railroad apartment in Carroll Gardens, an Italian enclave. Her father’s meager living as a printer leaves Partenza responsible for rescuing them from debt. She teaches herself typing, stenography, and bookkeeping and, after a series of other applications, applies for the job with Bevel. Outside his offices the line of candidates stretches around the block.

Partenza’s father is an Italian émigré and single father. Partenza is close with him growing up: Together, they create a weekly local newspaper and bond over her mocking performances of the poems of Italian poet and anarchist Arturo Giovannitti.