Content Warning: This section discusses suicidal ideation as well as death in violent combat.

An epigraph includes the contradictory observations that “in the midst of life comes death” and “in the midst of death comes life” (1).

In 1377 England, a 13-year-old peasant boy named Crispin, who is the first-person narrator, lives in Stromford, a small village. The day after his mother Asta dies, Crispin helps the priest, Father Quinel, bury her in the cemetery as rain falls. For reasons he doesn’t understand, Crispin and his mother were social outcasts in the village. Crispin doesn’t even know his real name; the other villagers refer to him simply as “Asta’s son.”

After the burial, John Aycliffe, the cruel steward who rules the village while Lord Furnival is abroad, announces that Crispin must donate his ox as a death tax. When Crispin points out that he won’t be able to work without the ox, Aycliffe replies, “Then starve” (4). Father Quinel tries to comfort Crispin, but he runs into the nearby forest, filled with despair. He trips, hitting his head, and falls unconscious.