The narrator recounts a mother's troubled life: married young to a struggling farmer who dies, enduring poverty, the loss of a daughter, and the birth of a son, Gregory. Her eyesight later fails and she accepts a marriage to a prosperous older farmer who provides but does not win her affection; his growing jealousy and harshness toward the child create household tension. The mother weakens after a subsequent childbirth and dies, leaving conflicting loyalties and resentments that shape the narrator's early family circumstances. The account highlights maternal devotion, grief, and the pressures of dependence and social position.