Summary

The novel opens on a woman named Margery O’Hare riding through the picturesque Kentucky countryside on her mule, Charley. The date is December 20, 1937, and snow is deep on the ground as they trudge along. Margery begins thinking about how a woman named Nancy would soon appear ahead, having walked five miles from her home to meet Margery, singing hymns the whole way. Suddenly, a man steps into her path on the road, “staggering slightly” and carries a rifle “like a fool, with his finger on the trigger” (2). She immediately recognizes the drunkard as Clem McCullough, who was engaged in a blood feud with her father, who is now deceased.

Margery does her best to diffuse the situation, but McCullough is belligerent and “raises his gun” (4). She considers her options for an escape, and realizes “she’s on her own, and he...