The novel begins in Marseilles 'thirty years ago' (i.e, c. 1826), with the notorious murderer Rigaud telling his cell mate how he killed his wife. Arthur Clennam is returning to London to see his mother after the death of his father, with whom he had lived for twenty years in China. On his deathbed, his father had given him a mysterious watch murmuring 'Your mother,' which Arthur naturally assumed was intended for Mrs. Clennam, whom he and everyone else believed to be his mother. Inside the watc