Introduction and Chapters 1 & 2 Summary

A Cure for Dreams presents the story of four generations of women as told by a mother to a daughter. The story begins in Bell County, Kentucky in the early twentieth century.

Introduction

In an introduction dated December 15, 1989, Marjorie Polly Randolph says that her mother Betty Davies Randolph died the previous month. She says that she, her mother, and her grandmother, Lottie O' Cadhain Davies always looked younger than their actual age. Marjorie states that her mother loved to talk, and she loved listening to her mother.

Chapter 1

Betty begins telling the story of her mother, Lottie. As a girl, Lottie has a recurring fantasy about meeting a man who approaches her on horseback, tells her she is beautiful, and impresses her with his mastery of firearms before he rides away. The man Lottie actually marries is far more...