Despite the small world in which Across Five Aprils is set, the novel features a large variety of characters. The main character, Jethro, first appears on a spring day at potato planting time.

Hunt writes, "The world seemed a good place to him that morning," but it soon becomes apparent that Jethro is lighthearted in spite of conditions on the farm and in the world, not because of them. Jethro is the youngest child of Ellen and Matthew Creighton, and four of his brothers and sisters have died.

Furthermore, no one knows what has happened to his oldest brother, who left for California many years before, never to be heard from again. The four who rest in Walnut Hill Graveyard exert a quiet influence on the living members of the family, reminders of life's brevity in a time when the death rate among young children is...