Casimir never knows whether to blame her or himself for their abandonment. Having vowed to pay for their passage to America when he grows up, he finds work as a miner and saves what he can. But the meager pay of a miner is not his only obstacle. Insanity has struck his family for several generations. Memories of his mad Uncle Jerzy, whose mouth is stuck in an O-shape, taunt him and fill him with dread of the day his own life will be ground up by madness.
Insanity does begin to take hold.
By then he is married to Victoria, a girl of fifteen from Dickson City, who is also a Polish immigrant. Victoria mistakenly thinks she is marrying a wealthy railroad inspector. Although Casimir, who became acquainted with her through a letter, discovers her mistake, he decides not to tell her the truth until after the wedding. Victoria, pregnant with their first child when she learns her husband is a miner, resolves to make the best of their marriage. In his mad delusions he confuses the sorrows of the past with failures on his wife's part.