- What Maisie Knew begins with an explanation of how Maisie's sad "fate" is first decided (Preface.5).
- There has been a long—almost "interminable"—court case, and it ends, after some complications involving money, with a verdict that grants shared custody to Ida and Beale Farange, Maisie's parents (Preface.1).
- So, by order of the court, each parent takes her "in rotation, for six months at a time," and James gives readers a taste of what's in store for Maisie: lots of change and confusion (Preface.1).
- The confusion will be caused by the role Maisie will be made to play, which the narrator already spells out: she will be "a vessel for [her parents'] bitterness"; she will act as a go-between for the divorced Faranges, who want Maisie "not for any good they could do her, but for the harm they could, with her unconscious aid, do to each other" (Preface.5).
- Poor Maisie!
- Before the preface ends, James offers some exposition that gives readers the scoop on the social world that the Faranges live in. Turns out, it's a very, very shallow one.
- We're also treated to some description of both parents, which makes it clear that they're shallow as well—shallow and pretty poor.
- Mrs. Farange likes to play pool, which isn't very ladylike of her.
- Little Maisie, though, is "provided for" because a great aunt whom we never meet has left her with just enough (Preface.6).