Chapter 1: The Measure of a Man Summary

At 27, Dellarobia Turnbow has already been married for ten years, has two kids, and a desperate desire for something new and exciting in her life. She and Cub Turnbow married at 17 when she got pregnant, but the resulting baby boy was born too early to survive; yet it was enough to trap her in a dull marriage to a farmer in a small town where everyone knows everyone else's business. The Turnbows now have two children, Preston, age five, and Cordelia, age one. Dellarobia's parents are dead; her in-laws live only a half-mile away on the same property as Dellarobia and Cub.

As the novel starts on a gray November day, Dellarobia has just dropped off her children with her mother-in-law Hester so that she can consummate her flirtation with a twenty-two year-old...