Content Warning: This novel contains depictions of domestic abuse as well as discussions of racially motivated prejudice, sexual assault, and forced sterilization. This guide also quotes the use of “miscegenation” in the context of racially discriminatory laws and prejudice in the United States.

Chapter 1 begins in Thousandsticks, Kentucky in 1953. Sixteen-year-old Honey Mary-Angeline Lovett’s adoptive parents, Mama (Cussy Carter Lovett) and Papa, are sending her to Troublesome Creek. They are being persecuted for violating “miscegenation laws” because Mama has methemoglobinemia, a gene disorder that causes her skin to turn blue, and Papa is white. Honey reflects on air-raid drills from three years ago. She also thinks about being given her middle names: Mary after her adoptive mother’s middle name, and Angeline after her birth mother’s first name. Honey’s birth mother had the same condition as her adoptive mother, and died in childbirth. However, only Honey’s hands turn blue from methemoglobinemia.

Mama and Papa direct Honey to ride their mule—Junia—and go to Miss Loretta “Retta” Adams. They provide her with gloves to hide her blue hands, a gun, a key to her grandparents’ cabin (which is stocked with food), her poetry journal, and names of people to go to if she needs help (John “Devil John” Smith and Bob Morgan).