The Westing Game: Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis

Though the sun sets in the west, the newly-constructed Sunset Towers apartment complex, a glassy, solitary, and magnificent five-story building on the shore of Lake Michigan, faces east.  One summer day—the Fourth of July—a sixty-two-year-old delivery boy rides around town slipping flyers under the doors of a group of “chosen” tenants-to-be. The letters are signed from a man named Barney Northrup—but no one receiving these letters is aware that Barney Northrup does not exist. The six letters describe the prospect of living in Sunset Towers as an unmissable opportunity and a “once-in-a-lifetime offer”—and advertise the fact that the building has space for a medical office, a coffee, shop, and a top-floor restaurant. 

All six recipients of the letters make appointments with the man called Barney Northrup to see the apartments. Barney is a practiced salesman who knows how to appeal to each of his six clients. He highlights the luxurious chandeliers as he leads Grace Windsor Wexler and her husband, Jake, around a unit, which he tells them is the last available (although they are his first appointment of the day). He speaks about the affordability and practicality of the place as he shows Sydelle Pulaski, an aging secretary, her unit.

In just one day, Barney Northrup manages to rent all of the apartments in Sunset Towers. Jake Wexler, a podiatrist, takes the medical office, the Theodorakis family takes the coffee shop, and the Hoo family takes the restaurant upstairs. The other “specially selected” tenants consist of a dressmaker, a secretary, an inventor, and a judge. Hidden amongst the tenants are a bookie, a burglar, a bomber, and a mistake. Barney Northrup has rented one apartment to the wrong person.