Summary

The Sojurn opens with a prologue of sorts, a flashback to 1899 in Pueblo, Colorado, a mining town on the Arkansas river that was home to many Eastern European immigrants. Lizzie Vinich rises from her bed and starts the fire in her small shack. Her husband, Ondrej, and her infant son Josef still sleep. Ondrej wakes up and criticizes his wife for being so loud in the kitchen. Lizzie tells her husband that she wants to leave the house that day, to take the baby for a walk. Ondrej reflects on how hard the time has been for her- the pregnancy difficult, the birth worse, the recovery long.

They decide to go to church, then lunch at Ondrej's sister's house, and that Lizzie can go for a walk after lunch. When Lizzie asks Ondrej if he will join he, he says no, and...