Plot

The Hamiltons, Samuel and Liza, live on bad land, but are good workers. They have five daughters and four sons. Cyrus Trask marries and has a son, Adam, and then his wife commits suicide. He then remarries a young girl, Alice, to take care of his son. Cyrus and Alice then have a son, named Charles. Alice becomes ill with tuberculosis, but she keeps it hidden in fear. Adam and Charles grow up together, always competing, partly because Cyrus has military ideals. Charles is much crueler than Adam, Adam is thought of as the sweet one and Charles is always jealous of the attention Cyrus gives Adam. Cyrus lies about his military achievements in order to advance his position, and he forces Adam to join the army in order to toughen him up. When Cyrus dies, the boys discover that he had over $100,000, which now becomes theirs. Adam then returns home from the army to live with Charles in their new wealth.

Cathy Ames destroys her family's home, killing her parents in the fire. She runs away and finds Mr. Edwards, to work in his whore-house. They "hit it off" and then he begins to beat her, and he leaves her in a field. Cathy crawls to the nearest house she sees, which happens to be Adam and Charles Trask. Adam nurses her back to health and they marry. He convinces her to move to California, against her will, and she gets pregnant. He buys a farm that is near to the Hamiltons' farm, and he becomes friendly with Samuel. She tries to abort the baby, but is unsuccessful. She has the baby, which turns out to be twins. She tells Adam that she does not want to live in California anymore. She tries to leave, and he stops her by locking her in the bedroom. She takes his gun and shoots him to escape. Adam is then left with the twins and so he hires Lee, to take care of the house and he babies. After this, Samuel makes an effort to help Adam.

Cathy leaves and goes to the city and she changes her name to Kate. She finds Faye, a whore-master and joins her house. She and Faye become very close. Faye treats Kate like a daughter, and eventually, she does not want to Kate to work anymore. She has Kate help take care of the house instead. Faye writes a will, in which she gives everything to Kate. Kate then poisons Faye and kills her.

Back on the farm, Samuel becomes very good friends with Lee. He is troubled that Lee has been taking care of the twins and that Adam has not even named them. Adam is like a walking ghost, and so Samuel goes to shake him out of his depression. His plan succeeds, and Adam names the boys Aron and Caleb. He and Samuel spend a lot of time together and Adam also becomes friends with Lee. Samuel, Adam, and Lee spend time together discussing many different things, often contemplating ideas. Lee is very intellectual and he likes to read, as well as Samuel. One major topic they discuss is the story of Cain and Abel. They try to form their own opinions about their freedom to control their own lives. They discuss the different versions of the Bible and their true meanings. One idea is that by the beginning of sin, people were given the ability to sin, another idea is that because sin was introduced, people are destined to sin. Lee had been reading a Bible in Cantonese and translating it to English. He said that Bible used the word, "Timshel", meaning, "thou mayest", and so Lee felt that the people were merely given the ability to chose whether to be sinful or pure.

Charles dies and leaves $100,000 dollars for Adam and Kate to split. Caleb over-hears Lee and Adam talking about the money and how to approach Kate about it. Caleb is very disturbed that Kate is working in a whore-house and he believes that he is destined to be bad because Kate is bad, he believes he doe not have control over himself. Caleb decides to go see his mother, and so he goes to town and follows her around, spying on her.

At the Hamilton's, Samuel realizes that he is getting old and his children plan a trip for him to visit each of them, knowing he doesn't have a long time left. Tom stays on the farm to maintain it, but he is heartbroken that his father is leaving. While on his trip, Samuel dies. In order to cheer Tom up, Dessie, his sister, comes to visit. She is beloved in the family and she always cheers everyone up. They spend a lot of time together, until Dessie falls ill. Dessie complains of stomach pains and Tom does not want to believe that she too, is dying. Therefore, he downplays the pains, saying it is just a stomach ache and will pass. He tells her to take some salts and rest, but the salts end up killing her. Tom is so distraught he kills himself.

Adam and the boys decide to move to Salinas, to the town. They keep their farm, and just hire others to take care of it. Lee decides that he wants to leave and own his own bookstore, but he becomes very lonely and returns within a week. In Salinas, Adam enrolls the boys in school. Aron becomes close with a girl, Abra, who he met at the farm when her family stopped by to get out of the rain. Aron focuses his time on Abra and Caleb spends time at school, he discovers himself to be a natural student. Abra suggests that Aron look for his mom, because she does not believe that she is dead, but Aron doesn't agree with her. Eventually, Caleb gets the nerve to approach Lee and tells him that he knows about Kate, and Lee advises Caleb to form his own opinion and not to tell Aron.

Adam uses his new money, inherited from Charles, to invent a cold box, which he packs with lettuce to send to warmer states. This plan fails miserably, leaving the Trasks in embarrassment and Adam without any money. Then, Adam finds out that Caleb knows about Kate, and Caleb continues to follow her. The next time he does this, Kate gets fed up and asks who he is and she lets him in. Caleb realizes that Kate is scared of him and therefore he decides that he is in control of himself, and he is not determined to be bad just because Kate is bad, which is a big break-through for him. Therefore, he decides that he is going to take control of his life and he is going to be nice. He creates a plan to make up the money that Adam lost in the freezer box plan. He talks to Will Hamilton, who is a known businessman, about helping him financially. Will connects to Caleb, and decides that he will help him.

Aron has decided that he will continue schooling, so he lives with a priest, in order to prepare for college. Adam learns Aron's plan to go to college and he plans a party to celebrate once Aron passes his exams. Aron passes, but he does not tell Adam, spoiling the plan for a party. Aron then goes to Stanford, and while Adam has been preoccupied with Aron's college plans, Caleb has earned back all the money that Adam lost by conning other farmers to buy their beans at a cheaper price before the cost went up. Caleb plans to give the money to Adam at Thanksgiving.

Now that Aron has been away so long with the priest, and now plans to go to college, Abra has had time alone to contemplate their relationship. She feels that Aron likes his idea of her, and not actually her. He continually writes letters to her, and she feels that he thinks better of her than he should. Lee and Abra become very close, and he treats her like a daughter. He tells her the truth about Kate.

At Kate's house, Kate has been getting older and she has painful arthritis. She hires a man, Joe, to help do her 'dirty work'. Joe is her ideal worker becuase he works for himself, he does not ask questions, and he doesn't get into anyone's business. Their relationship is based on fear, as most of Kate's relationships are. A woman, Ethel, who previously worked for Kate comes to see her. Ethel knows that Kate killed Faye, and Ethel is running away from trouble herself. She wants Kate to help her escape, so she blackmails her. Kate has Joe help send Ethel over the town border, and then tells him to keep tabs on her. Joe lies about Ethel, he finds out that she is dead, but he tells Kate false information so that she pays him.

At Thanksgiving, Aron comes home and Caleb gives the money to Adam. Adam rejects it, because he feels that Caleb did not earn it fairly. Caleb is mad and so he takes Aron to see Kate. Kate finds out that Joe is on the run from previous violations. She turns him in to the police, and then kills herself. Joe tries to run from the sheriff, and he shoots him. Before Kate died, she wrote a will leaving all her money to Aron. Aron is so upset he decides to join the army and break up with Abra. Abra and Caleb begin to spend time together. Since Kate died, Adam has not been himself. He returns to his former state, of just living but not really caring. Then, a letter arrives that Aron has been killed in the war. This pushes Adam over the edge, and he has a stroke and is near death. Caleb feels that he killed Aron by revealing the truth about Kate, and he convinces himself that Adam feels the same way. Lee encourages Adam to let Caleb know that he does not feel this way. Adam can barely move, and he can't speak. Lee keeps telling him to let Caleb know he doesn't think its his fault. Adam lifts is hand, signaling his forgiveness. Then Lee tells him to "set Cal free" from his guilt and thoughts that he will always be bad because Kate is. Adam says, "Timshel", meaning "thou mayest", so Caleb has the ability to make his own decisions.