In which Martin Arrowsmith and his wife Leora arrive in Wheatsylvania to find themselves enveloped in the well-meaning but insistent attentions of the Tozer family, whose fussing over details from supper times to office arrangements both comforts and constrains them. Amid negotiations and village gossip, Martin secures a modest but his own office, igniting quiet pride and a hopeful anticipation of the work and life that lie ahead in this vast, open country.