Lying on his bed in his New York apartment, Neville assumed he was in Barbados in his parents' bedroom, occupying the body of his nephew Billie who was dying of cancer, in order to comfort his sister Daphne; eight days later a letter arrived from Daphne saying that on that very day she had entered the room and seen her brother Neville instead of her son, and his wife and a woman friend were witnesses that he had told them of the act in advance.