Naomi Deane, the protagonist and narrator, introduces herself. She lives in a town called Blackbird Tree with her guardians, Joe and Nula, because both of her natural parents are dead. Naomi recalls a story Joe told her often about a man who lost all his money but won a donkey. When he cried that he was too poor to feed the donkey, the animal told the man to reach into its ear. Doing so, he pulled out a sack of feed. Wishing for something for himself, the man reached into the donkey’s other ear and pulled out bread, butter, and meat. The man went on to pull many useful items from the donkey’s ears. However, each time Naomi heard the story, she worried that the man would pull out something bad, though he never did.

One day, a boy’s body falls from a tree, knocking Naomi over. He is close to her age, around 12. Suddenly, the body speaks, asking her if he is dead. Because he can talk, Naomi assumes he is alive. He isn’t sure how to determine if he is alive, and he asks if he’s in a place called Rooks Orchard; Naomi has never heard of