Chapter 1 Summary

Mary Yellan is a young woman living in England in the early part of the nineteenth century. Mary was raised by her widowed mother and worked side by side with her on the family farm until her mother's death a few short months before the opening of the novel.

Mary is traveling toward Bodmin, sad to leave her home in Helford. Mary's father died when she was only six, leaving her and her mother to run the family farm. Mary's mother was strong, running the farm with little help from friends and neighbors. Seventeen years after her husband's death, Mary's mother finally succumbs to the stress and grief she has suffered in her life. On her deathbed, Mary's mother forces Mary to promise she will sell the farm and go to live with Patience, her aunt, in Bodmin. Mary agrees, but it tears...