Right chapter two.
I was right – we have returned to the past.
It’s 1950, Ellie is 7 and her dad has just died from tuberculosis.
Her uncle (father’s brother) makes them move out of their mansion and into an apartment in the ‘slums’. There is an implication that this move is a punishment because Ellie’s mother has refused to marry him.
Ellie is going to start school and she is hoping to make friends.
We learn her mother is descended from Qajar royalty.