Summary

Chapter 1, “Coltsfoot,” begins when Peter O’Connor, a ploughman, and John O’Donoghue, brought Nóra the corpse of her husband, Martin Leahy. Peter explained that he had seen Martin grip his chest and collapse as he dug ditches beside the valley. When they brought him inside her cabin, Nóra forced Peter to take her grandson, Micheál, to an old neighbor, Peg O’Shea, to avoid his mysterious illness that contracted his muscles, rendered his legs paralyzed, and affected his cognitive abilities from being detected by visitors. Nóra was very much in love with her husband, and she screamed, whimpered, and slept by his corpse until John’s wife, Áine, arrived to help wash the body. When the priest arrived later, he was reluctant to perform Martin’s last rights due to his death, but Nóra insisted.

That night, the...