Bethia’s family, the Mayfields, at the time of the story’s opening includes her brother Makepeace, her infant sister Solace, and her father, the minister of this Puritan community on an island off the coast of Massachusetts we today call Martha’s Vineyard. Bethia’s mother is no longer alive.

Lying in bed, Bethia overhears her father and brother discussing the imminent arrival of Caleb. Makepeace expresses concern that they will be hosting—in the same house as Bethia—a man only very recently “removed from paganism” (3).

Bethia does not mention anything about this apparently important conversation the next day. She explains to the reader that listening is an important skill of hers, learned from her deceased mother. Bethia’s mother virtually never spoke outside of the Mayfield household. Apparently, she had a beautiful voice and loved to sing. However, outside the family, Bethia’s mother went her way in silence, absorbing information rather than contributing to the spread of gossip. She often picked up important information about the community for her husband.

Bethia carries on this skill of her mother’s. In fact, careful listening alerted her to her own mother’s impending death in childbirth (during the birth of Solace).