The nameless narrator describes inns along the Thames River including the Swan, an ancient inn known for storytelling. Margot Ockwell serves as the landlady, while her husband Joe Bliss is one of the preeminent storytellers. As a young man, Joe mastered the art of storytelling in the Swan, and when he won a competition, he used the prize money to buy a ring for Margot. Together, they had 12 daughters and one son named Jonathan, who is described as “different” from the other children: “He [is] fifteen now, but where other boys of his age [are] looking forward impatiently to manhood, Jonathan [is] content to believe that he would live at the inn forever with his mother and father” (7). In his old age, Joe sleeps for days at a time. The narrator notes that it is the winter solstice when the story begins, a night which carries significant superstitions.

A group of regulars drink in the inn while an old adventurer named Owen Albright tells a tale. Jonathan wishes that he could tell a story but becomes frustrated when he cannot. Joe starts to tell a story but is interrupted as a man with a “monstrous” head steps into the inn.