This work, the first of a projected four-volume memoir, is the story of the author's relationship with two cousins - Johnny and Garth. It explores the influences of these two very different people on the author as he grew up in Port Elizabeth. It also describes Fugard's parents and his experiences in the Jubilee Residential Hotel run by his mother in the early 1940s. This memoir reveals the influences which have fuelled Fugard's creativity from its earliest days and have shaped the direction and nature of his work.