Chapter 1 Summary

Housekeeping is the story of two sisters coming of age in an isolated mountain town. The narrator, Ruth, and her younger sister, Lucille, rely on each other to survive. Their father deserts the family too early for them to remember him. When Ruth is about six, their mother commits suicide. Their grandmother takes them in for five years until her death. Then two, unmarried, elderly great-aunts take custody. These anxious ladies cannot cope with children, so they turn the girls over to their mentally unbalanced aunt, Sylvie. The household gradually dissolves into total disorder. Ruth bonds with the free-spirited Sylvie, but the more conventional Lucille yearns for stability. The school ignores the girls' truancy and increasingly uncared-for appearance, until Lucille begs for help from her home economics teacher, who gives her refuge. The chaos of the household situation is exposed. A judge tries...