- We are introduced to the heroine, Lily Owens. She reminisces about her father, T. Ray, and her surrogate mother/caretaker, Rosaleen.
- Lily begins by alluding to the summer she was 14, when "the bees came" and her life "went spinning off into a whole new orbit" (1.3). Apparently, on the night of July 1st of that year, she was laying in bed and a swarm of bees decided to have a party in her room. Lily went to go get her father, T. Ray, to show him, but by the time they returned, the bees were gone. Thinking Lily had been lying to get attention, he was not pleased with the wakeup call. As far as her life going into another orbit, we don't really know what that means yet . . .
- She then describes another life-changing incident: the death of her mother, Deborah, when she was four. Sadly, it appears that Lily accidentally caused her death. While arguing with T. Ray as she was packing her bags to leave him, Deborah pulled a gun and then dropped it. Lily's memory becomes blurry here, but she seems to recall picking up the gun, at which point it went off.
- Later, to try to prove to T. Ray that the swarm was real, she decided to capture all the bees she saw in a jar to show him later.
- Then, she goes on to provide some more details about her family and her life growing up. She remembers the day that she found a bag of her mother's things in the attic, including a picture, some gloves, and a small wooden picture of the Virgin Mary, who was black. The back of the picture said "Tiburon, S.C." She buried these things in a tin box in the orchard to prevent her father from finding them.
- She also reminisces about working for her father, which involved selling his peaches in a stand by the side of the road. This memory prompts her to think about her life aspirations as a 14-year-old and how they were shaped.
- She then winds back the clock even further, describing the day before she went off to school for the first time. On that day, she and T. Ray discussed her mother's death (T. Ray wanted her to know what actually happened before she had to deal with the kids at school).
- Now we're back to Lily as a 14-year-old on the day she was working at the peach stand. When she got home, she found Rosaleen watching President Lyndon Johnson signing the Civil Rights Act into law.
- Then, over dinner, Lily tried to talk to T. Ray about her upcoming birthday, hoping he might want to do something nice for her. He didn't.
- Later that night, after T. Ray had gone to bed, Lily snuck out to go visit the hiding spot with her mother's things and lay out in the orchard. Unfortunately, she fell asleep, and T. Ray woke up wondering where she'd gotten off to. He went storming out into the orchard to get her.
- Convinced Lily had been out carousing with boys, he then took her back to the house and made her kneel on grits for an hour as punishment.
- The next morning, Rosaleen told Lily that she was going to walk into town the next day, and Lily begged to tag along so she could get out of the house on her birthday. Rosaleen informed Lily she was going to register to vote.
- The next day they set out together as planned. They stopped in a church to rest, where Brother Gerald, Lily's minister, came upon them. Rosaleen helped herself to a couple of fans to help keep them cool on their travels.
- When they finally got to town, some men playing cards outside the gas station started harassing Rosaleen and using racial epithets.
- Rosaleen and the men exchanged words, which ended with Rosaleen pouring the contents of her snuff jug (a.k.a. her spit jar) over their shoes. They then physically attacked her and called out to a man inside to call the police.
- Rosaleen emerged from the brawl with a cut on her face. Then, she was arrested for assault, disturbing the peace, and theft (as she had casually mentioned stealing the fans to the men). Lily was taken to the police station with her.