Told from main character Bobby’s point of view, this first chapter opens with, “My father still lives back the road past the weir in the cottage I was reared in. I go there every day to see if he is dead and every day he lets me down” (9). There is a pervasive, lifelong tension between Bobby and his father, Frank.

As Bobby goes up to Frank’s house, there is a “red metal heart in the centre of the low front gate, skewered on a rotating hinge” (9). When Frank dies, Bobby will inherit the cottage and what’s left of his grandfather’s farm. He daydreams about burning down the house and selling the land. He believes that Frank is only staying alive to hurt him; the longer Frank stays alive, the more the land value decreases. It’s clear that Frank is a malevolent character, as Bobby describes him with a heart that is “caked with muck” (10).

Bobby can’t believe that his former boss, Pokey, betrayed him and the other workers. When the economy downturned, Pokey fled the country without paying the men their pensions or stamps. Pokey never even registered the men as working for him, which means that the men are now unemployed and without pensions.