Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary

Till We Have Faces explores Queen Orual's lifelong battle to reconcile her religious heritage with her Greek tutor's agnosticism, brought into conflict when her beautiful sister, Psyche, believes she has become the sacrificial bride of the Wind-Spirit and loses him, when Orual demands proof. In old age, Orual writes and then appends corrections to her telling of the story, sure some day that wise Greek readers will judge between her and the gods.

No longer fearing the gods, Queen Orual as an aged, husbandless, childless, nearly friendless woman, writes to eventual Greek readers asking they judge between her and the gods over how she has been treated. The powerful goddess Ungit, who in the form of a black stone sits in the darkness of the House of Ungit, hates Orual, the eldest daughter of the King of Glome. Her story begins...