Summary

Chapter 1 begins with the first person point of view of 16-year-old Tierney James who lives in Garner County. During a girl’s sixteenth year, she is believed to hold powerful magic and is thus banished to the outskirts of town for a year. This is called the grace year, and no one is allowed to talk about it.

Chapter 2 starts Part 1 of the novel, which is labeled Autumn. Tierney dreams of a young girl with a red mark under her right eye. She follows the girl into the woods, where a group of women are having a meeting about ending the grace year. Tierney also sees a red, five-petaled flower. Upon waking, she keeps quiet about her dream, as women’s dreams are believed to be a way of hiding their magic.

Today is veiling day, where all eligible bachelors pick a...