Content Warning: This section includes discussion of incest and slavery.

The story starts with the first of the six italicized vignettes interleaved in the main, non-italicized narrative. The italicized vignettes parallel the main narrative and eventually intersect it. Like the other vignettes, the first one describes a trio of men traveling west across a primeval landscape—likely Appalachia circa 1900, but the setting remains hazy throughout the story. Without speaking, the men camp at dark and break camp at first light before continuing along a river.

The main, non-italicized narrative starts with a dream. A man named Culla Holme finds himself in a square amid a group of people with leprosy. A prophet stands before them, promising that an impending eclipse will heal them. As the sun darkens, Culla asks the prophet if he, too, can be cured, though he isn’t sick like the others; the sun stops, and the prophet answers that it’s possible. Suddenly, the sun is completely extinguished, and the people begin crying out against Culla. He tries to hide in the darkness, but the crowd finds him and falls on him in a fury.

Culla’s sister, Rinthy, wakes him from this nightmare into a reality that is “more dolorous” (5).