Preface and Chapters 1 and 2 Summary

Preface

The Hocking River runs through Chauncey, Ohio. It was in the middle of the city that Marie would meet Lena on the white side. When it rains, the Hocking River rises and sometimes even floods. When it floods, debris is carried down the on the swift currents. Chauncey was a poor mining community. Marie's father always said that the poor people were on welfare. Her mother said they were on state aid - sounded nicer. Her father was practical and she became more practical, too, after her mother left.

A lot of the miners contracted black lung and took government handouts until they died. When the mines were depleted of their ore, there was no work in Chauncey and the people were moved to low income housing in Athens, a few miles south, and given factory...