The story opens on a summer day in 1893 in rural Christian County, Illinois. Rosie Beckett, nearly 14, is ignoring the teasing of her little brother, seven-year-old Buster. She knows Buster is testing her, wondering if she is “fixing to grow up and leave him behind” (4). She passes Buster’s test as he skins a squirrel in front of her, and they discuss their older sister, Lottie. At 17, Lottie is being courted by a local hired man, Everett, whom their mother dislikes because they know nothing about him. Buster offers Rosie hollyhock blossoms and buds to make hollyhock dolls, but Rosie refuses them as she is too old to make the dolls now. She is freckled, red-haired, and “a little bit spunky” (7) and wonders if anyone would ever want to marry her.

Granddad Fuller returns from his daily trip to town in his horse and buggy. He bears a letter from the children’s aunt, Aunt Euterpe Fuller Fleischacker, who lives in Chicago and of whom they know and hear very little.