The novel begins with Lyle Henderson, a young, unkempt-looking man waiting for the ex-policeman Terrieux, outside Terrieux’s dilapidated apartment. Terrieux invites Lyle inside, where Lyle tells Terrieux about his upbringing in the Stumps, an area just outside of New Brunswick, along the stretch of the Miramichi River, where Terrieux once worked as a policeman. Lyle shows Terrieux a picture of an old neighbor of his, Mat Pit. Prior to resigning, Terrieux had been in pursuit of Pit for some petty crime, and Pit had jumped into the river and would have drowned, had Terrieux not saved his life. Lyle begins his story.

In this section, Lyle begins his tale with the birth of his father “in a shack off Highway 11” (11). At 13, Sydney Henderson quit school to work with his father, Roy Henderson. By 15, Sydney is a drunk because of his father’s parenting, but he is also well-read. After years of faithful work, Roy Henderson’s employer, Leo McVicer, fires him for following Leo’s instructions to poach salmon. To gain his job back, Roy tries to stop Leo’s men from striking, but instead they frame him for starting a fire on Leo’s property.