Summary: Chapters 1-6

            Matilda is a girl who lives with her widowed mother. Her mother has very high expectations for Matilda. Whenever the housekeeper is late or fails to show up, Matilda is responsible to begin the day’s duties. Matilda adores the waterfront, where her mother forbids her to go for fear that she will become ill, although she looks for any opportunity to make long detours while out on errands to visit her favorite spot.
           
            They run a coffee house, along with their grandfather, out of their house. Eliza, a free African American, works for them as a cook for the coffeehouse. She is saving her money to set her husband free of slavery and is sure to take special care of Matilda. Polly is a servant at their house and is late today. She has become a long-time friend to Matilda. There is sickness in the air but mother assures Matilda that “serving girls don’t get sick”. Since Polly is not there to run the errands to the market, Matilda volunteers to go and look for Polly while she is out, but mother won’t allow it.

            Upon her return, she tells Polly that Polly has died. It was a sudden. Matilda is in shock and wants to go see Polly’s family, but mother does not want her to. That day in the coffeehouse, grandfather and many of the other men begin talking about the illnesses that seem to be coming from the refugees living at the waterfront. A doctor interrupts the conversation and says that it is not just the refugees, but that the disease yellow fever is in the air again. The people in the coffeehouse quickly jump to the conclusion that doctors make people worry about unnecessary things and that moving farther into the country would be unnecessary.

            Weeks later, more people had died. They needed items from the market and mother was extremely exhausted so they ended up sending Matilda as grandfather suggested. Mother was still worried about this because she felt like the sickness was coming from the water’s edge. There was a lot of fever talk in the market. While there she sees a long lost friend, Nathaniel. He had the day off from his job as a painter and was going fishing. He asked Matilda to join him and although it was tempting because she enjoyed being herself around him, she knew that she needed to get back home. Before she left she heard the church bells ringing. Another person had died of the fever.

            After more weeks have gone by, they begin to talk about making a bigger coffeehouse as people begin to move away from the waterfront in hopes of avoiding the fever. Mother thinks this is an irrational idea. Later that day, mother and Matilda are invited to afternoon tea with Pernilla Ogilvie. Mother thinks this is a wonderful idea because she had a handsome son that she thought would be good for Matilda. They struggle to find clothes in their home that are good enough to wear to tea with Pernilla Ogilvie. As chapter 6 comes to a close, they are headed out the door to tea and grandpa thinks Matilda looks like a “china doll”.