Due to a carpenters' strike, the narrator finds himself based in the small Massachusetts town of Starkfield for the winter. He learns Ethan Frome's story from many sources. Frome was crippled by an accident almost a quarter of a century earlier. When the narrator's horse rides are ceased due to an illness in the stable. So he hitches a ride with Frome in his carriage. One-day the narrator's train is cancelled and Ethan Frome offers to take him all the way to his work. On the way back the storm grows and it becomes too hard to press on so the narrator is offered to spend the night at Ethan's house.
Chapter 1
This chapter flashes back to a time before the accident. …
