SPOILERS!!!
I finished reading the book last night, and even though it was very sad, I loved it.
Prue, her mother, and other women have a threading session, and the weaver is expected. When the new weaver , Kester Woodweaves, arrives, he causes a turmoil. He is tall and attractive, and the woman fuss over him. Prue thinks that she has fallen in love, but she remains in a discreet corner, fearing that he will see him and she is ashamed of the way she looks.
Beguildy, Jacis's father, continues opposing the engagement between his daughter and Gideon. Then she wants her to be employed as a servant, a contract lasting three years, and this time Gideon, who is obsessed with money, thinks that it is a good thing, and three years will pass quickly. Jancis is hired by Grimble, who is known to be unkind. As she will live far away, Prue offers to write letters for her brother, and Kester will help Jancis and will take the letters. Prue is very clever and when she writes the letter, it is clear that she is almost writing to Kester herself.
Jancis runs away after just six months, and arrives at Prue's home. It is Prue who calms her brother down, and Jancis is hired by the Callards, who live close by, and she and Gideon can see each other every weekend. Gideon and Jancis are to get married after harvest,
There is a fair in town, followed by a tradition, bull baiting. When this is about to start, Kester says that he will buy the bull, and the owner can have the bull back. The other men are not pleased, and Kester agrees to fight the dogs himself. As he has been acquainted with the dogs previously, none attacks him, but there is one that is new. Prue is afraid for him and grabs a knife, and when she returns, she finds Kester being attacked by the dog, and she knifes the dog and saves his life.
Prue doesn't stay to talk to Kester, but he hears the truth, and there are a few episodes when Kester shows his interest in Prue. At the harvest everybody helps Gideon to collect all the produce, and it is a happy event. Yet, Kester tells Prue that he is to leave for London because he wants to learn how to weave in two colours.
Gideon and Jancis are to marry in a few days, and her mother thinks that she could send her husband to visit some relative who needs help. After Beguidy leaves, Gideon tells Jancis that he will now have what is his, and he moves to sleep with Jancis as the wedding will take place in a couple of days. Then disaster strikes when Beguildy returns and on finding Gideon, he kicks him out of his house. And that night he sets fire to the barn, and everything Gideon, Prue and their mother have worked for is gone.
Beguildy is arrested, and Gideon, who is bitter and devastated, doesn't want Jancis any longer, and because of what has happened, Jancis and her mother have to leave. Prue's mother is not well. The verger's daughter Tivvy comes to be with the woman. Tivvy is in love with Gideon, but he is not interested. What bothers Gideon is that his mother has become a burden, and he keeps saying that she may be better off dead. In the end she even agrees, and Gideon poisons her, and the woman dies.
Then Jancis appears, broken and with a very weak baby. Prue feels for her when Gideon refuses her and the baby, and that night Jancis goes to the lake and kills herself and her baby. From then things start going from bad to worse. Prue threatens to leave when Tivvy tells her that Gideon gave her mother poison to kill her, and that is something she can't forgive. Yet, she stays when Gideon starts saying that she sees Jancis and the baby coming to him. Then one night he sets off in his boat; it is foggy and some children hear him jump to the water and he dies.
Prue now knows that she has to leave as nothing ties her to the land any longer. Kester wrote once, and he promised to return, but she has never heard of him again. Prue decides to sell all her animals at the fair, and she does so. And then Tivvy, bitter for having lost the man she loved and carrying an illegitimate child, starts shouting at everybody, saying that Prue is a witch and accuses her of killing her mother with poison, and also Jancis and her brother. Some of the women try to defend her, but there are more people against her, and they start saying that they need the ducking stool and they grab her, and the book ends when Prue feels the ropes tying her to the stool.
The book is beautiful but sad. The descriptions are evocative and beautiful, and the book reflects a time and the characters in a real way.
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