Summary

As Martha Hale leaves her house to join her husband on that cold winter's day, she casts a hasty glance around her kitchen. She is uneasy about leaving her house in such a state; she had been in the middle of making bread when she and her husband were called upon by the town sheriff to assist in a murder case, the likes of which had never been seen before in Dickson County. Martha's husband calls her as she hovers in the doorway, reluctant to leave with the kitchen in such a state, and she hurriedly closes the door and gets into the big two-seater buggy that has come to collect them to take them to the crime scene.

The woman sitting next to her on the back seat of the buggy is Mrs. Peters, the sheriff's wife, whom Martha has...