Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death, child death, racism, and religious discrimination.

Sofie Von Meyer Rhodes arrives from Germany in Huntsville, Alabama, with her children Gisela and Felix to join her husband, Jürgen. She is bothered by the stark visibility of racial segregation on her way to meet Jürgen, and she considers how to approach this topic with her children. When Sofie and Gisela see Jürgen, they are overjoyed at the reunion, but Felix has never met his father and hides behind his mother. When they arrive at the house that Jürgen has bought for them, Sofie meets her neighbor, Claudia, another recent German immigrant.

Lizzie Miller, her father, and her brother, Henry Davis, work together on the family farm to plow the fields. Lizzie’s father assures them that rain will come soon, but Lizzie is skeptical. As they ride the tractor back to the house, Lizzie and Henry discuss the problem of cows getting stuck in the mud. When they get to the cows, the three work together to free them from the mud, and Lizzie suggests that they sell the cows. Her father refuses, and Henry urges Lizzie to be more optimistic.