Turner Buckminster, the teenaged son of a minister, arrives in Phippsburg, Maine with his parents. His father has been assigned to a local church. Although Turner’s parents have a seamless transition to the community, the locals embarrass Turner after he plays a game of baseball with the local men and boys. The town has a particular style of pitching that Turner struggles with, causing the town’s residents to taunt and belittle him. His peers also tease Turner for being unwilling to jump off a cliff into the ocean. Dejected, Turner wanders down Phippsburg’s main street and meets two elderly women living across the road from each other. One, Mrs. Cobb, chastises him for kicking rocks near her house, and the other, Mrs. Hurd, treats Turner kindly and sympathetically. Turner’s father comes by on the street and urges his son to join him and the church’s deacons as they tour the area.

The end of the chapter switches to 13-year-old Lizzie Bright’s point of view. She has been sent to cut firewood near her home on an island separated from Phippsburg by an inlet, called Malaga Island.