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Chapter One

• The novel opens with Claude Lantier walking home late at night during a rainstorm when he finds a young woman huddled in his doorway.

• Not wanting to leave the young woman outside in the rain, he brings her up to his studio apartment to spend the night.

• Claude is already in a bad temper because of his large painting which he has been unable to get on canvas the way he envisions it.

• Christine wakes the next morning to find Claude sketching her as she lies in bed.

• Christine's purity is portrayed in her reaction, pulling the cover up over her exposed arm.

• Before she leaves, Christine performs a few domestic straightening duties in Claude's studio.

Chapter 2

• When Pierre Sandoz arrives to pose for the man in Claude's painting, Zola explains their history and the beginnings of their revolutionary ideas.

• As boys, Claude, Pierre, and Dubuche...

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