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Act 1, Scene 1

• Bynum, who is a boarder in Seth and Bertha's boardinghouse and a conjure man, has asked traveling salesman and People Finder Selig Rutherford to find a spiritual "shiny man" who gave Bynum a vision where he learned his mystical song of people-binding.

• Seth buys metal from Selig every week and sells him pots, pans, and other metalwork, and he's looking for funding to make metalwork his full-time business by hiring and training five other men.

• Jeremy, one of Seth's boarders, was arrested the previous night for drunkenness--though he hadn't had a drink yet--by police who wanted to collect a two dollar fine on the black worker's payday.

• Herald Loomis and his daughter Zonia come and rent a room at the boardinghouse in Herald's search for his wife, Martha, who Seth believes is Martha Pentecost, though he doesn't tell Loomis.

• Mattie Campbell comes to see Bynum to...

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