The novel opens with a dramatic description of a Lithuanian wedding feast hosted by the Liermans, which introduces the reader to all of the major characters and some of the secondary characters: Jurgis Rudkus (originally "Rudkos"[4]), his bride Ona, their extended family and their friends. Nearly every person who has passed by the building has been invited to attend the feast, as was the custom from the old country. Musicians play, the guests dance, food and drink flow freely, but an undercurrent of terror foreshadows what is to come, their generous hospitality has cost them much, but the traditional donations expected of the guests are few in number and small in size. Lured away from Lithuania by promises of work, Rudkus and his bride's family have arrived in the Back of the Yards neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois at the end of the 19th century, only to find their dreams of a decent life unlikely to be realized. Jurgis has brought his father Antanas, his fiancée Ona, her stepmother Teta Elzbieta (literally "Aunt Elizabeth") and Teta Elzbieta's six children. Teta Elzbieta's brother Jonas and Ona's cousin Marija Berczynskas have accompanied them.
From the beginning, they have to make compromises and concessions to survive. They quickly make a series of bad decisions that causes them to go deep into debt and fall prey to con men. The most devastating decision comes when, in hopes of owning their own home, the family falls victim to a predatory lending scheme that exhausts all their remaining savings on the down-payment for a sub-standard slum house that (by design) they cannot possibly afford. The family is evicted and their money taken, leaving them truly devastated
