Content Warning: The source text for this guide contains frequent discussions of rape, sexual assault, murder, historical execution practices, pregnancy loss, child loss, and descriptions of racism.

During the winter of 1789, an unidentified dead body floats down the Kennebec River near the town of Hallowell in central Maine. The freezing water traps the body in its place, only feet away from the banks of the river. The dead man’s hair is tied back by a piece of lace, and the omniscient narrator of this Prologue suggests that his decision to carry the lace was a fatal one but doesn’t explain why. A fox carefully walks across the frozen surface of the river, stops to inspect the dead body, sniffs the air, and begins to howl.

Martha Ballard, the town midwife of Hallowell, helps Betsy Clark, wife of the blacksmith, Charles, to deliver her new baby. Betsy fears that the baby will be a girl, since her husband is hoping for a boy, and Martha bristles at such gender bias. When the baby arrives, and is indeed a girl, Martha delivers the news to the blacksmith in order to spare Betsy his potential anger.