Summary

Part I - William Talmadge has aged prematurely, and seeks solace in the quiet of his orchard of apples and apricots. He is an unattractive but kind and gentle man who focuses most of his time on tending to the orchard, during which his mind wanders to the past. He travels into town to sell the fruit he grows, where a customer points out two scraggly and pregnant teenage girls watching him. Talmadge falls asleep at his stand, during which time a boy awakens him to tell him the girls have stolen fruit, but Talmadge does not pursue them.

Talmadge reflects on coming to the valley past the Cascade Mountains in the summer of 1857 with his mother and his one-year-younger sister, Elsbeth, after his father died in a mine collapse in Oregon Territory. They settled in an abandoned mining camp near Peshastin Creek and...