The End of the Beginning

The narrative Prologue shows a mother teaching her young son a hostile alternative history of Sinanju and raising him to destroy Chiun’s line; her claims are presented as her account, not settled history. In the main story, Folcroft director Harold W. Smith retrieves Master Chiun from Sinanju with Conn MacCleary’s help. Chiun reluctantly trains Remo Williams, a Newark policeman framed for murder and removed from Trenton State Prison through a staged execution. Smith says CURE was founded with a young President in 1963 to act outside ordinary constitutional limits, and explains that “CURE” is a wish, not an acronym. Chiun’s training begins. A blond boy trained by Mr. Winch kills Vino Vercotti; Winch kills Vino’s brother Dino.

Chiun tells Remo the Destroyer prophecy without confirming Remo as its subject. In Texas, Chiun visits an unnamed former President to remove his knowledge of CURE. Remo objects when he thinks Chiun means to kill him; Chiun says he intends to remove knowledge, not life, and whispers a cover explanation too softly for Remo to hear. The former President appears to remember the visit as a dream the next morning. The boy kills Senator Dale Bianco and, in a separately depicted scene, Senator Leonard O’Day. CURE later receives reports of additional senator murders, while Smith’s end-of-case account attributes three dead senators’ watches to Ravello; the latter report does not match the source’s direct depiction of O’Day’s killer.

Nuihc, Chiun’s nephew and former pupil, is revealed as Mr. Winch. His mother’s history of Sinanju and Chiun’s account remain attributed, competing family traditions; the narrative says Nuihc doubts both. Nuihc persuades Carmine Viaselli to pursue attacks on the government, although he also has a hidden employer. Conn MacCleary investigates Norman Felton’s penthouse, is sent over its balcony during an attack, survives the fall with severe injuries, and later asks Chiun to complete the death he attempted himself after Remo cannot do so. Chiun cuts Conn’s throat. Remo discovers that “Maxwell” is Felton’s car-crushing machine, not a person. Nuihc’s hired attacker Rail Ravello hides in Senator Calvin Pierce’s coffin and shoots at the sitting President at the Capitol; Chiun saves the President and Remo kills Ravello.

When a second coffin opens, Remo strikes the hidden occupant through its lid; Smith later reports that the dead person was a Viaselli numbers-runner. Nuihc confronts Chiun and escapes. FBI agents kill Viaselli in a gun battle; Pietro Scubisci, who had arranged Nuihc’s hidden employment, takes control of the family. In the Epilogue, Nuihc takes the unnamed blond boy to a ruined castle on Saint Martin and continues coercive training, using a chained teenage girl to draw the boy’s attention.