The first chapter has an omniscient narrator and focuses on the town of Habit, Kentucky, where most of the novel takes place.

In 1906, George Clatterbuck discovered a newly formed hot spring in one of his back pastures. At first, because of the spring’s sulfurous smell, he assumed this new spring was a bad sign about the health of his land. Soon after his discovery, the Clatterbucks experienced several hardships: Their horses got sick, and all of the cows got mastitis and were unable to feed their calves.

One night, the horses escaped their corral, and George found them at the hot spring, drinking the water. He worried that they would get sick and die, but instead, their illness cleared up immediately. On a whim, he drove all the cows to the spring so they could drink the water, too, and soon after, they could produce milk again. George didn’t tell anyone about all this because he was unsure if it was “the work of the Devil or the Lord” (5).

Then, George’s daughter, June, got sick. When she was close to death, George forced her to drink some of the spring water.