Where the Crawdads Sing

Kya spends two months in jail awaiting trial before she finally meets with her court-appointed lawyer, Tom Milton, whom no choice but to trust. On the first day of the court proceedings, Milton asks to have the trial moved. The prejudice against Kya is so high that he believes she cannot get a fair hearing. The judge dismisses his request, reads the charge to Kya, and explains that the prosecutor is seeking the death penalty.

The court completes jury selection, and Kya recognizes most of the people selected. Some of them are friendly faces, like the Piggly Wiggly cashier, but others are hateful people like the Methodist minister’s wife who snatched her little girl away from being near Kya all those years ago.

Kya is birdwatching in Cypress Cove one morning in August 1969 when Chase happens upon her. Chase is verbally and physically aggressive with Kya, but she angrily resists him. He seems incapable of understanding that she no longer wants to be with him and insists that regardless of her wishes, she belongs to him. When he wrestles her to the ground to rape her, she fights back. He punches her in the face and takes off her pants.