sentences:  A decade earlier, Jonesport, Maine preacher Seth Parker and his wife took in motherless infant Robbie Turner after he was abandoned by his sadistic alcoholic father Rufe; young Robbie has always considered the Parkers his parents.Mary Lucy Duffy, whose father has banished her from their home for fraternizing with farmhand David Clark, is also living with the Parkers, and her romance with David attracts the attention of the local gossips.David's mother had run off with a stranger years earlier, and when she returned to Jonesport with an illegitimate infant son, they were shunned by the townspeople.