Chapters 1 through 5 Summary

As the story opens, Silas Heap is headed home through the forest carrying herbs given to him by Galen, the Physik Woman, that he's to take home for his newborn son, Septimus. Silas senses a living being nearby and discovers an infant girl, wrapped in a blanket lying in the snow. He knows he can't leave the child to die and takes her home with him. At the bridge, Silas is stopped by the Gatekeeper, a man named Gringe, and is forced to pay the man a penny. As Silas enters the walls of the city, he encounters Marcia Overstrand, the Extraordinary Wizard, who tells Silas he's to tell no one about finding the child but is to raise her as his own. Silas nods and Marcia disappears. Just as Silas reaches the door of his crowded little house, he meets...