A winter of quiet longing ends at the foot of an elm tree.
Who drives the story
A taciturn, limping farmer and lifelong Starkfield resident, once a young man with hopes of leaving. He wants Mattie and cannot bring himself to abandon Zeena, and one swerve of a sled decides the rest of his life.
Ethan's wife, seven years his senior, sickly and hypochondriacal, her life organized around doctors and remedies. She sends Mattie away, then ends the story as Mattie's grimly efficient caretaker.
Zeena's poor orphaned cousin, living with the Fromes as unpaid household help, warm and full of life where the farmhouse is cold. Her suicide pact fails, leaving her paralyzed and querulous in the wheelchair.
An unnamed engineer stranded in Starkfield for the winter, who hires Ethan as his driver and shelters at the farmhouse during a blizzard. From that glimpse he reconstructs the story we read.
Also in the story
The stage driver who tells the narrator that Ethan's limp came from a 'smash-up' twenty-four years earlier and calls him a 'ruin' of a man.
The builder's wife whose unexpected kindness about Zeena's health shames Ethan out of his deception and costs him the money to escape.
How they are connected
Ethan FromeZeena (Zenobia) Frome
He wants Mattie and cannot bring himself to abandon Zeena, and one swerve of a sled decides the rest of his life.
He wants Mattie and cannot bring himself to abandon Zeena, and one swerve of a sled decides the rest of his life.
Zeena (Zenobia) FromeMattie Silver
She sends Mattie away, then ends the story as Mattie's grimly efficient caretaker.
An unnamed engineer stranded in Starkfield for the winter, who hires Ethan as his driver and shelters at the farmhouse during a blizzard.
The stage driver who tells the narrator that Ethan's limp came from a 'smash-up' twenty-four years earlier and calls him a 'ruin' of a man.
The stage driver who tells the narrator that Ethan's limp came from a 'smash-up' twenty-four years earlier and calls him a 'ruin' of a man.
The builder's wife whose unexpected kindness about Zeena's health shames Ethan out of his deception and costs him the money to escape.
Mrs. HaleZeena (Zenobia) Frome
The builder's wife whose unexpected kindness about Zeena's health shames Ethan out of his deception and costs him the money to escape.
Go deeper
Duty against desire · Poverty as a trap · Winter and isolation · The cost of silence
Themes explainedThe full story act by act, the ending explained and a quick quiz.
Open the summary