Chapter 1 begins with Matty impatiently cooking dinner with his adopted father, a blind man called Seer. Matty is eager to check on something in a clearing by the Forest. After dinner, Matty walks by his old schoolteacher’s house hoping to see the man’s daughter, Jean, whom he has a crush on. He thinks about the schoolteacher, called Mentor, who has a bright red birthmark on his face. In the town Matty grew up in, a man would be put to death for a flaw like that. But in Village, those who look different or have a disability are welcomed and valued.

Matty doesn’t see Jean but sees his friend Ramon, whose family recently acquired a Gaming Machine at Trade Mart. Matty wonders about Trade Mart and about what Ramon’s family traded in exchange for the Gaming Machine, but no one ever asks about that. Instead of visiting Ramon, Matty heads into Forest. Most people are afraid of Forest because it has entangled and killed many travelers, but Matty knows Forest well and thinks that Forest likes him.