Lydie Breeze opens at dawn at the Hickman house, on Nantucket. The “very sparsely furnished” parlor and stairs leading to a landing are visible; there is also a porch and a beach with an upended rowboat buried in the sand. Lydie enters, carrying a candle, and kneels in prayer, followed by Beaty, who leads her through a strange ritual that tells of the suicide of Lydie’s mother, Lydie Breeze. The two invoke the dead woman’s spirit to “keep her alive.” It becomes clear that Beaty has been in charge of the girl’s spotty education.
