Abitha chases her goat into a dark pit, where the goat is devoured by an awakened ancient entity.

Wallace arrives at the farm and announces he is selling Edward's property to his lender, Lord Mansfield, to cover his debts.

Edward falls into the dark pit alone and is consumed by the ancient entity Father while investigating it.

Abitha convinces Reverend Carter it is her duty as a widow to complete Edward's harvest and pay off the debt.

Father approaches Abitha in the barn and she is overcome with terror, believing him to be the devil.

Abitha brings Father gifts in the forest and they perform a spell together that causes her corn to grow miraculously.

Abitha names Father 'Samson' and he forms a deep magical bond with her, growing closer over the following weeks.

Wallace burns down Abitha's barn after discovering her corn crop is far too plentiful to steal.

Abitha and Samson perform a spell to produce a miraculous quantity of honey, replacing her ruined crop.

Abitha pays off her debt with honey, but Wallace storms off publicly accusing her of witchcraft.

Wallace and Ansel spy on Abitha weaving a crown of flowers and bones and bring the evidence to the ministers.

Abitha is found guilty of witchcraft at trial, and Sarah Carter is convicted as her accomplice.

Samson arrives to free Abitha from captivity and gives her the choice to drink his blood and become a witch.

Abitha hunts down Wallace, kills him, and brands his daughter Charity's forehead as punishment for lying at the trial.

Decades later, Abitha lures two hunters to dinner in the forest and promises them Samson will join.

Abitha's journey begins when her brother-in-law Wallace threatens to seize the farm and her husband Edward is killed by an ancient forest entity in a dark pit. After forging a magical bond with the entity she names Samson, Abitha builds enough power to pay her debts and hold Wallace at bay. Wallace escalates his campaign against her, destroying her crop and engineering a witchcraft trial that leaves Abitha tortured and near death. Samson offers her a choice, and she drinks his blood to become a witch, hunting down every man who wronged her. The novel ends decades later, confirming that Abitha and Samson's partnership endures long after the destruction of Sutton.

The core story of Abitha's survival, power, and violent reckoning.

Wallace visits Lord Mansfield after losing the church dispute and receives permission to use ungodly means against Abitha.

Abitha retrieves her mother's braided hair and remembers how to ward her home using a charm of blood and ash.

Wallace arrives at Abitha's farm and offers her marriage to his teenage son as an alternative to farming alone; she refuses.

Father follows ghosts from the pit toward the realm of the dead, searching for answers about his past.

Sarah Carter warns Abitha that Wallace plans to indenture her if the harvest fails; Ansel Fitch overhears the warning.

Father kills a hunter in the forest, and a woman later dies in his grasp as he demands to know his true identity.

Abitha hears a voice at the well urging her to die by suicide; she refuses and finds a bucket of berries left by Father.

The wildfolk confess to Abitha that they lured Edward into the pit and killed him; Father is horrified and apologizes.

Abitha and Sarah Carter secretly heal the minister's daughter Martha using an empowered root and Samson's power.

Wallace disguises himself as an Indigenous man and hires Jesus Thunderbird and companions to steal Abitha's corn.

The wildfolk try to kill Abitha by summoning snakes; Samson rescues her and banishes the wildfolk.

Samson gives Abitha a broom and the two fly together over the forest and into the past.

Abitha and Sarah are locked in outdoor cages; the jailers burn Abitha's last braid of her mother's hair.

Magistrate Watson crushes Sarah Carter under rocks until she confesses; Abitha is hung by her feet until near death.

Samson summons ghostly animals to distract the men barricaded in the church, then sets it on fire and kills Sheriff Pitkin.

While Abitha fights for her farm, darker forces gather: Wallace receives permission from Lord Mansfield to destroy her by any means necessary, and Abitha must rely on her mother's secret folk magic just to protect her home. Father's dangerous nature becomes clear as he kills in the forest, and Abitha confronts her own despair before the two cautiously begin to trust each other. As Abitha and Samson grow closer, the wildfolk strike back violently, and Abitha and Sarah Carter quietly build a friendship through forbidden healing magic. Their bond ultimately leads to both women's imprisonment and brutal torture at the hands of the magistrate. Samson's rescue arrives almost too late, culminating in his burning of the church and the death of the last men who stood against Abitha.

The hidden struggles, quiet alliances, and brutal consequences behind Abitha's world.

Edward, coached by Abitha's arguments, confronts Wallace and Reverend Carter and wins a ruling that Wallace cannot immediately sell the farm.

The wildfolk tell Father he is a slayer and protector of Pawpaw, but Father senses they are withholding the full truth.

Father watches Wallace berate Abitha from a distance, feels her despair, and returns to the pit searching for his own answers.

Abitha reasons that Father might be a forest-god and brings him candy and a crown as offerings in the woods.

The wildfolk confront Father for refusing to kill Abitha and decide to murder her themselves.

A Pequot man calls Samson 'Hobomok,' sending him into a murderous rage that results in the man's death.

Samson follows a group of Pequot men from the forest edge to a cave where a shaman tells him he has much to learn.

Mamunappeht shows Samson a stag skull mounted on his cave wall and reveals it is Samson's own severed head.

Mamunappeht reveals that the wildfolk corrupted Samson through a blood sacrifice, transforming him from a nature-god into a murderous slayer.

Overwhelmed by the truth of his past crimes, Samson begs Mamunappeht to put him to sleep with visions of spiders.

Forest enters Mamunappeht's cave and finally confesses the full truth: the wildfolk's own hatred made Samson far more monstrous than intended.

Samson reunites with the pieces of himself stolen by Mamunappeht, accepts that he is both shepherd and slayer, and destroys Mamunappeht.

Samson's goat horns transform into magnificent black antlers the moment he fully accepts his true dual nature.

Abitha frees a traumatized Sarah from imprisonment, but Sarah rejects her and accuses her of bewitchment.

Magistrate Watson hacks off his own tongue rather than face a slow death after Abitha captures him.

Every major turn in Slewfoot is driven by a revelation or a choice: Abitha coaching Edward to challenge Wallace, or Father sensing the wildfolk are lying about his own history. As Samson seeks answers, a Pequot man's utterance of the name 'Hobomok' triggers a murderous rage that sets him on a path toward the truth of his past. Mamunappeht finally reveals that Samson was once a nature-god destroyed by the wildfolk's own corrupt spell, and Forest confesses the full story in the cave, freeing Samson to accept his dual identity and destroy his captor entirely. Meanwhile, Abitha's transformation unfolds through a series of terrible choices: drinking Samson's blood, releasing a shattered Sarah who can no longer accept her, and forcing Watson to mutilate himself. These turning points reveal that identity in this story is never given — it is always violently and painfully claimed.