Content Warning: The novel and this guide contain discussions of child death/miscarriage, alcohol addiction, and suicide.

Dellarobia Turnbow, a 27-year-old woman, is climbing up the main trail through her family’s farmlands to rendezvous with Jimmy, a young man from town. Dellarobia is married with two children, and she is acutely aware of how the news of her adultery will impact her husband, her children, and her already tentative social status in the community. However, her desire for something beyond the life of a housewife on a failing farm in rural Tennessee drives her to meet with her potential lover. Dellarobia describes it as being “Like a hunted animal, or a racehorse, winning or losing felt exactly alike at this stage, with the same coursing of blood and shortness of breath” (1-2).

As she climbs up the path, Dellarobia imagines how the townspeople will react to the news of her affair. She thinks they won’t be surprised, as their opinion of her from her younger years, that of a wild girl, will merely be validated by her adulterous behavior. Then she replays in her mind the events from earlier that day, including leaving her two children, Preston and Cordelia, at her mother-in-law’s house so she could have time alone to dally with Jimmy, the telephone repairman.