Chapter 1 Summary

This is the story of a group of friends in Depression-era Kansas tied together by shared interests in quilting, conversation, good food, and keeping secrets. As the narrative unfolds, following its central character / narrator through a series of both challenges and affirmations to her beliefs about friendship, it also explores themes relating to the dangers, rewards and necessities for keeping secrets, to issues of ambiguous morality, and to the passing on of both truths and secrets to future generations.

City girl Rita, newly married to local farm boy Tom Ritter, attends her first meeting of the Persian Pickle Club, a group of women that gathers regularly to sew, quilt, and talk. Narration in the voice of Queenie Bean, one of the club's friendlier members describes Rita's prettiness, her occasional discomfort, and her lack of knowledge about how quilting works. At the same time...