Chapter 1 Summary

Chapter 1, titled Birth, 1905, introduces Daisy Goodwill's parents, their backgrounds, and the circumstances of Daisy's birth. Daisy's mother, Mercy Stone Goodwill, is an obese, childlike woman who takes pleasure in food, cooking, and little else. She was abandoned as an infant and grew up in an orphanage where all of the children were given the surname Stone. The Goodwills live in a small village called Tyndall in Manitoba, Canada and live a simple life. Mercy is a housewife, taking pleasure in maintaining her household, and her diminutive-by-comparison husband, Cuyler, works at a local quarry.

Mercy is confused by the adulation and sexual passion of her husband, but is a dutiful wife, taking part in all of her wifely duties without complaint. Cuyler is empowered by the love he feels for his immense wife, having never known love in his childhood.

One day, while preparing...