Pages 3 - 20 Summary

In March of 1964, a heavy blanket of snow is falling. Osteopath Dr. David Henry and his wife of one year, Norah, are snugly at home in Lexington, Kentucky,contemplating what is it like to be in utero. David is loving and attentive to his wife. He recalls meeting her for the first time in a department store, following her and pretending to shop until he could make contact with her, buying a robe he claimed was for his sister. Three months later they were married. David's sister had been dead for ten years. David, although a very good doctor, still holds a sense of not being good enough, having come from a poor, unambitious family. He chose the study of bones because they are solid and predictable.

Norah goes into active labor, and they head out on the treacherous trip in...