Content Warning: These sections reference, though not extensively or in great detail, the murder of a child, suicide by a child, suicide attempts and contemplation of suicide, miscarriage, and instances of sexual coercion.

Richard Phillotson, the schoolmaster of Marygreen, prepares to depart for university in Christminster. As locals assist him in packing his belongings, a dilemma arises regarding Phillotson’s piano. Eleven-year-old Jude Fawley, one of his students, offers to store it in his great aunt’s fuel house until Phillotson can arrange for its transport. Moved by Jude’s kindness and studious nature, Phillotson gives Jude a book as a parting gesture.

Phillotson invites Jude to visit should the boy ever find himself in Christminster. As Jude goes to fetch water from the well, he reflects on Phillotson’s departure, only to be met with a stern scolding from his great aunt for lingering too long. Struggling to carry the heavy buckets through Marygreen, Jude observes the changes in the town’s structures over time, noting the scarcity of original buildings amidst the rebuilt ones.