Summary

The novel opens on August 4, 1892 as Lizzie Borden looks at her dead father on the living room couch. The events of the chapter are told from her perspective. She calls to her maid, Bridget, asking her to summon help as someone has killed her father. Lizzie tells Bridget that someone has cut her father’s face. Bridget becomes distraught.

After sending Bridget out to get the town doctor, Lizzie goes to the back yard to get a drink of water. As she takes a sip from a pail by the wail she sees the gray body of a dead pigeon and thinks of her father. She wanders back into the house just as Bridget returns with the news that the doctor is not at home. When Bridget asks if they should get Mrs. Borden, Lizzie sharply tells her that her step-mother is not at...