Mary Turner is a high-spirited woman who, while striving not to repeat the mistakes of her mother, finds herself thrust into the very same circumstances of abject poverty and unfulfillment when she enters an ill-conceived marriage. Once content with her life as a single woman in the city, Mary soon makes the tough decision to get married after hearing friends gossip about her bleak prospects. She marries Dick Turner quickly, though their marriage seems doomed from the first date. When she is taken from her life in the city to abject poverty on a farm, Mary unravels. She is extremely harsh to the natives, whom she despises, and she similarly despises her husband as he continues to show his incompetence as a farmer. Her desperation leads to an emotional break when she allows the servant-master relationship between her and Moses, a native, to evolve into a complicated affair of mutual reliance with disastrous consequences. It is revealed in Chapter One that Mary is killed by Moses.

Dick Turner is a mild-mannered farmer who owns land in rural South Africa. He decides to marry, and hopes that Mary will come to love him in time despite his poverty. Dick is beset with financial problems and the farmers refer to him as “Jonah” because of his bad luck.