The novel opens at Saint Anthony's, a Catholic orphanage for boys in late-19th-century New England. A man arrives "after morning prayers" (3) on horseback. The boys try to watch the man as he hitches his horse then kisses its nose. He is one of many men who has come to the orphanage. The brothers at Saint Anthony's put the boys in line so the men can inspect them. Usually, the men look for "the loudest, […] strongest" (4) boys, to work, or "the barely crawling" (4) babies, considered "still untainted and fresh" (4). This leaves the "in-betweens" (4), boys who usually offer only "empty stomachs and a bad case of lice" (4).

Ren is one of these “in-between” boys. He doesn't remember his life before coming to Saint Anthony's. His only memories are of being there, eating "watery oatmeal" (4) and being "slapped" (4) for writing on the wall with a shard of brick. Whoever left Ren at the orphanage had sewn his name into the collar of his "good linen "(4) nightshirt. The nightshirt gets handed down to younger boys the longer Ren stays at the orphanage, until Brother Joseph cuts the piece of the collar with the letters out and gives it to Ren.