The story begins with a succinct introduction by the narrator: “This is the story of how Much-Afraid escaped from her Fearing relatives and went with the Shepherd to the High Places where ‘perfect love casteth out fear’” (3). Much-Afraid is a young girl who lives in the Valley of Humiliation and deals with a number of physical maladies, “with feet so crooked that they often caused her to limp” and with a crooked mouth “which greatly disfigured both expression and speech” (3), conditions that cause her great distress and consternation to all those around her. Despite this challenge, she has been “in the service of the Chief Shepherd” for quite some time (3), along with many other of the Shepherd’s followers, and Much-Afraid hopes to one day be delivered of her infirmities and to be made well—even to be made like the Shepherd himself.

Equally as troubling as her physical deformities are her troublesome relations, the Family of Fearings: her Aunt, poor Mrs. Dismal Forebodings, and her three cousins, Gloomy, Spiteful, and Craven Fear, all of whom despise the Shepherd and all who pledge allegiance to him. One day they determine that Much-Afraid should be immediately married to her cousin Craven Fear, and Much-Afraid flees in horror to the trysting place, a location on the outskirts of the village where she often meets the Shepherd.