Summary

In the prologue set in February 1886, the narrator and protagonist, Esme Nicoll, tells of the first word she took. She was sitting on her father’s lap reading a word. The word is “lily.” This is also the name of Esme’s deceased mother. Esme’s Da throws the slip with the word, “lily,” into the fire. Horrified, Esme reaches in to grab it. “The blacked shards of the word were stuck to my melted skin,” Esme explains (xiv). She understands that “some words are more important than others” (xiv).

It is May, 1887 as Esme, as narrator, describes the Scriptorium. This is a shed on Dr. Murray’s property where the people working to compile the Oxford English Dictionary work. Esme’s father has told her that if she learns all the words, she will know everything. She spends her...