Chapters 1 - 18 Summary

In Chapter 1, Mary remembers her mother telling her about the ocean, and remembers a photograph of her grandmother standing in the water. Mary wonders what that kind of a world would be like, without the Forest of Hands and Teeth and the Unconsecrated. Mary's father has gone off into the Forest, and never come back. Mary's brother, Jed, is a Guardian patrolman, who guards the fence that keeps the Forest and the Unconsecrated beings away from the village. Mary and Jed's mother believes that her husband will one day come back, but Mary and Jed believe their father has become one of the Unconsecrated. Their mother goes to the fence daily to look among the Unconsecrated for her husband. Mary always goes with her, fearing she might do something crazy. Jed's wife's brother, Harry, is Mary's age, and often visits with...