Prologue Summary
A wall of smoke pulls Lavinia McCarten into a headlong sprint toward home, her seven-year-old daughter, Elly, stumbling behind. Panic strips away caution as Lavinia claws through brambles, crashes into a stream, and drags herself up the final bluff—afraid of what Elly might see, but unable to stop. At the crest, a body hangs from the great oak. Lavinia recognizes the victim by a green headscarf and handmade shoes, and the prologue sets the novel’s trajectory through Loss, Trauma, and Grief and Secrets and Deception.
What Happens
Smelling fire, Lavinia bolts along a path she knows by heart, driven by a “new fear” that crowds out everything but speed. Elly calls for her to slow down, but Lavinia, snagged in blackberry brambles, tears herself free and, in her frenzy, shoves her daughter to the ground to break away. She begs Elly to stay put and plunges on, the urgency eclipsing even maternal gentleness.
At the stream below the plantation, Lavinia doesn’t stop to remove her shoes. She slips on the rocks and falls hard into the cold water, the shock stealing her breath. The smokehouse on the far bank jolts her forward. Waterlogged and shaking, she scrambles up the opposite side. Elly catches her again at the base of the hill and clings to her wet skirts. Knowing it’s too late to send the child back, Lavinia laces their fingers and climbs.
They crest the bluff and freeze. A body hangs from a thick branch of the massive oak that anchors the yard. Lavinia makes herself stare at anything but the face; the green headscarf and the familiar handmade shoes are enough. Elly whimpers and sinks to the ground. Moving as if inside a nightmare, Lavinia steps toward the tree, the scene locking into place as the novel’s central tragedy.
Character Development
The prologue places Lavinia at the breaking point, revealing both her ferocity and her fear. She is protective yet ruthless with herself, willing to do the unthinkable—push her own child—under the weight of terror. Her refusal to look at the victim’s face reads as a survival instinct and an early sign of the trauma that shapes her narration.
- She prioritizes speed and truth over propriety, even at the cost of gentleness with Elly.
- Her instant recognition of the victim through intimate details signals a close personal bond.
- Her avoidance of the face shows both denial and the limits of what she can bear, foreshadowing a narrative of memory, omission, and pain.
Themes & Symbols
The prologue begins at the brink of catastrophe, immersing the story in loss, trauma, and grief. The frantic journey through brambles and water, culminating at the oak, frames the novel through aftermath rather than build-up; readers live inside the wound before they know its cause. Mystery tightens alongside grief: What burns? Who dies? Who is responsible? That silence announces a world where truth hides in whispers, and where deception—private and public—governs survival.
Symbols sharpen the moral rupture at the heart of the plantation setting. The estate’s most rooted image, the oak, becomes a gallows; nature’s solidity warps into a spectacle of violence. The stream functions as a threshold: a cold, shocking passage that ushers Lavinia from fear into the terrible fact. And the green headscarf and handmade shoes wrench the scene from abstraction into intimate loss, making the victim a presence in Lavinia’s life rather than a distant figure.
- Oak Tree: A traditional emblem of strength and family twisted into an instrument of terror, exposing the rot at the center of home and heritage.
- Stream: A harsh, baptismal crossing that mirrors Lavinia’s plunge into a reality she can’t unsee.
- Green Headscarf and Handmade Shoes: Personal identifiers that humanize the victim and deepen suspense by withholding the name while confirming the bond.
Key Quotes
I refused to look up again after I caught sight of the green headscarf and the handmade shoes that pointed down.
Fixating on small, intimate details lets Lavinia identify the loved one without confronting the face, capturing the double motion of grief: knowing and refusing to know. The downward-pointing shoes silently render the violence, while the green headscarf strains against the living beauty implied by “green,” heightening the scene’s emotional dissonance.
Why This Matters and Section Significance
Starting in medias res, the prologue anchors the narrative to its darkest truth and turns the rest of the novel into an investigation of how this moment happens and what it costs. It establishes the stakes—domestic space corrupted, innocence endangered—and promises that every relationship and choice will be read in light of this hanging.
- Creates immediate suspense by presenting the end before the beginning.
- Sets a somber, foreboding tone steeped in violence, injustice, and private sorrow.
- Frames the plot as a reckoning: the path to the oak and the price of reaching it.