Magda describes her first meeting with Emerence. Due to recent changes in the political situation in Hungary, Magda is permitted to publish her writing again. This begins a period of professional success for Magda, but she and her husband realize that they need someone to take care of their house so that Magda has more time to write. A former classmate mentions Emerence to her. Unusually, however, Emerence doesn’t allow prospective employers to interview her. Rather, she interviews Magda and will decide whether she can work for the professional couple. Emerence is an elderly woman, but is “tall, big-boned, and powerfully built for a person of her age” (6). She radiates strength and establishes, through her demeanor, that she doesn’t need money or a job. Rather than offering references for herself, Emerence requires references from Magda. Trying to form a bond with Emerence, Magda mentions that they come from the same part of the country, but Emerence is “in no mood to reminisce” (7).

A week later, Emerence announces that she’ll accept the job. She introduces herself to Magda’s husband, whose formal mannerisms make him the only person who approaches Emerence “in his attitude and his values” (9). Emerence sets her own work hours. This initially perturbs Magda, but she quickly discovers that Emerence works “like a robot” (10), with superhuman strength. She’s almost “oppressively” perfect, yet Magda is bemused that the woman seems deathly afraid of storms. In one instance, Magda tries to arrange for Emerence to receive a parcel at the house. She knocks on Emerence’s door, urging Emerence to hurry. Emerence is fiercely private about her small apartment, allowing no one inside, and doesn’t like to be rushed. She glares at Magda, who feels so taken aback that she spends the rest of the day reflecting on the woman’s “hurtful rejection.” Later, however, Emerence quietly places the received package in Magda’s kitchen alongside some food. Magda is convinced that Emerence is “slightly insane.”

Emerence allows no one into her home, not even her brother Józsi’s son or the Lieutenant Colonel (one of her good friends). She has a cat in her home, she says, and must not allow it outside. This isn’t Emerence’s first cat. Magda tells of an earlier cat that attacked pigeons belonging to Emerence’s neighbor. The neighbor killed the cat and criticized Emerence. When her next cat went near his pigeons, he killed this cat as well. He hung the cat’s dead body on her front door. Then, his pigeons began to die. The man was convinced that Emerence was responsible. He went to the police, but the authorities defended Emerence. The Lieutenant Colonel (then still a Second Lieutenant) formed a close relationship with Emerence and introduced all recruits to her personally. The police routinely ignored the pigeon breeder’s complaints and accusations, placing them into a “special dossier on Emerence” (17).

At first, Magda confesses to being “rather afraid of Emerence” (18). The woman is a central figure in the community and takes pleasure in caring for anyone who is sick. She clears snow from all the buildings and never sleeps in a bed. She refuses to take tips, as she’s “interested only in giving” (21). Magda considers her “the ideal home help” (22), but Emerence was also determined to keep everyone at arm’s length.

For many years, Emerence seems to care “very little” for Magda or her husband. This changes when Magda’s husband (whom Emerence refers to as the Master) becomes ill. He undergoes surgery, and Magda visits him in the hospital. When she returns, Emerence is waiting for her and accuses Magda of not telling her about the Master’s surgery. To relax Magda, Emerence insists that she drink an herbal concoction from a “steaming goblet.” The drink is wonderful and helps Magda sleep.

Magda thinks about Emerence’s relationship to the Church, which she opposes with “an almost sixteenth-century fanaticism” (26). She resents the performative aspects of religion and charity, maintaining a fiercely anticlerical position throughout her life. While Magda and the neighbors attend church, Emerence often sweeps sidewalks or performs chores. On the night of the Master’s surgery, after delivering a “tirade about Christ as victim of political machinations and a trumped-up criminal charge” (29), Emerence recognizes that she has upset Magda. However, she’s glad to have done so. Magda believes that Emerence’s actions make her a true Christian, more devout and sincere in her benevolence than any church-goer; she simply doesn’t condone organized religion.

To quell Magda’s unease, Emerence reveals a secret about her past. She talks about her childhood and her late father. After his death and the “coming of the war” (31), Emerence’s mother remarried. Emerence often looked after her younger twin siblings. Her stepfather took her out of school to help more around the farm. He was then conscripted and killed in the war, at which point Emerence’s mother began to find life “unbearable.” Emerence decided to run away with the twins to find her other brother, Józsi, but they were caught in a storm. Lightning struck and killed both of the twins. Emerence remembers how she screamed and how their bodies looked like “charred logs of firewood” (34). In despair, her mother hurled herself down a well, dying by suicide. Emerence couldn’t stop her. Neighbors cleared the bodies, and Emerence lived with her grandfather until she was sent to work as a maidservant for a man in Budapest. She departed right after the funeral. Now, Emerence says, she saves all her money to build a lavish crypt for her family. She wants it to be “as big as the whole world” (36).

After the “surreal night” during which Emerence opened up, Magda considers her a friend. Despite this, Magda can’t find Emerence. Magda cleans the house herself and visits her husband in the hospital, wondering why she’s so obsessed with Emerence. Magda brings her husband home from the hospital, but in the following weeks sees Emerence only intermittently. She sees her visiting sick neighbors, always carrying a large, ornate christening bowl filled with food. Feeling resentful toward Emerence and knowing that the bowl once belonged to a Jewish neighbor named Mrs. Grossman, Magda convinces herself that Emerence took the bowl from the fleeing family “when the Jewish laws were in force” (41). Magda recalls the period during World War II; she’s horrified that Emerence is feeding people (including her husband) from a bowl that “had belonged to a destitute stranger bound for the gas chamber” (42). She begins to wonder what else Emerence is hiding in her apartment, particularly as Emerence never allows anyone else inside her home.

Magda is convinced that she has discovered Emerence’s “secret” (43). She puts this aside, however, when she finds a dog on Christmas Day. Magda brings the shivering puppy home; her “animal-hating husband [is] defenseless” (45). At home, Magda is shocked by Emerence’s “outpouring of maternal passion” (45) toward the puppy. The vet comes to help, and they struggle to save the dog’s life for weeks. Magda and her husband try to name the dog, but the dog ignores them. Instead, Emerence names the dog Viola (even though the dog is male). While Magda loves Viola, Emerence adores him. Emerence insists that Magda take care of the dog, but Viola listens only to Emerence and seems to innately understand what she wants from him. Viola obeys Emerence totally and, when he’s bad, she beats him mercilessly. Unlike anyone else, Viola is permitted to enter Emerence’s home, and when he brings home fleas, Magda understands that Viola has met Emerence’s cat. When Emerence is absent, Viola is desperately concerned and searches for her.

While taking Viola for walks, Magda meets more people in the neighborhood. However, the dog often drags her to Emerence’s home. Emerence receives guests on her front porch. She allows no one inside her apartment, which Magda refers to as Emerence’s “Forbidden City.” Everyone accepts this rule, including Emerence’s most prominent relation, the son of her brother Józsi. Magda suspects that Emerence’s home is furnished with the Grossman family’s belongings. The only person who has been inside, she learns, is the Lieutenant Colonel, who has known Emerence for a long time and helps protect her. The Lieutenant Colonel found no stolen furniture, however. He and Emerence share a “rare and beautiful friendship” (60). Since they’re so close, Magda begins to doubt her theory about Emerence stealing from the Grossmans.

Magda’s new acquaintances include the neighborhood women Sutu, who runs a food stall; Polett, who offers ironing services; and Adélka, the widow of a laboratory technician. Since Viola is so devoted to Emerence, Magda asks whether the dog should live with her. She resents how much her dog prefers Emerence. However, Emerence refuses. She’s only permitted one cat, she says, and she believes that “old people shouldn’t keep dogs” (62). For the first time, Magda thinks about Emerence’s mortality. She accepts the bond between Viola and Emerence as she tries to figure out exactly how old Emerence might be. Documents are scarce, as Emerence has managed to shut the authorities out of her life. Sutu tells of how Emerence lived with a man named Mr. Szloka during the siege of Budapest, but he died. She buried his body in the garden, but he was exhumed in 1946. Afterward, Emerence worked for Germans and Russians alike. If anyone complained about her, she could rely on the Lieutenant Colonel to help her. One day, Magda notes, Emerence doesn’t appear. Viola frets incessantly.