The novel is divided into two parts, and their titles reflect Gwyn's changing role: Part I, "The Innkeeper's Daughter," and Part II, "Jackaroo." In Part I, Gwyn's role as a woman, the daughter of the innkeeper, is clearly established.

When she returns from a long journey through the snow to the Doling Room, she is still expected to work at the inn, carrying trays of food, bringing in fire wood, and grooming the horses—all before she can have her own dinner.

When the Earl and his son demand her services as they travel through the countryside, she walks while they ride, they speak as she listens, and she serves their meals before she eats her own.

But even in Part I her role as Jackaroo is foreshadowed. As she stands in the Doling Room and looks at the women in ragged clothes and tattered...