70 pages • 2 hours read
The Chilbury Ladies' Choir
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Chapters 1-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of gender discrimination, sexual content, and death.
Chapter 1 Summary: “Notice Pinned to the Chilbury Village Hall Noticeboard, Sunday, 24th March, 1940”
The local vicar posts a notice announcing the closure of the village choir due to the absence of male singers, who have gone to war. The choir’s final performance will be at Commander Edmund Winthrop’s funeral the following Tuesday.
Chapter 2 Summary: “Mrs. Tilling’s Journal”
Tuesday, March 26, 1940
At Commander Winthrop’s funeral, the choir gives a poor final performance. At the reception, Mrs. Tilling worries about her son, David, in his new army uniform, and she observes the grieving Winthrop family: the pregnant Mrs. Winthrop, daughters Kitty and Venetia, and the brigadier, who is enraged over losing his male heir.
Mrs. B., a member of the choir, complains about the choir’s closure and pursues the vicar to protest the decision, which Mrs. Tilling quietly defends.
Chapter 3 Summary: “Letter from Miss Edwina Paltry to Her Sister, Clara”
Tuesday, March 26, 1940
After the funeral, the brigadier summons Miss Edwina Paltry, a midwife, to his study and proposes a criminal scheme: If his wife gives birth to a girl, he will pay Edwina to swap the infant for a village boy, securing a male heir for the estate.
Motivated by greed and a desire to repay money she owes to her sister, Edwina agrees. They schedule a secret meeting in 