Chapter 1: Schwenk Farm - Chapter 3: Brian Bails Summary

Chapter 1 opens with the narrator talking in a very casual tone, as though she were speaking with a friend, describing her morning. It's evident from the tone and topics that the narrator is a teenage girl, but her name and age are not given. The narrator explains to readers that she lives on a dairy farm with her dad, mom, and younger brother. Her father hurt his hip a few months ago in an accident involving a cow manure spreader and can no longer perform many of the farm duties, so the narrator has had to take over. She clearly knows a lot about dairy farming and seems to really care about one particular cow named Joe, which is 11 years old and has failing health.

The chapter ends on a cliff-hanger...