His son Amable and his daughter-in-law Alphonsine are suspicious of the intrusion of this Stranger into the family, especially since he eclipses them with his strength and his hard work.
"If he stayed, there would be the house, security, economy in everything and everywhere, the little farm of twenty-seven acres and nine perches, and the constant worry about money ... if he went, there was freedom before him, the mountain trail, the mystery of falling darkness.
To conclude, the Stranger has changed the lives of the main characters in the story: the father Didace, widower, will fall in love with the Acayenne, widow too, and despite his advanced age, will decide at the end of the history of the marrying to found a new family, his son Amable and his daughter Alphonsine trying for a long time to found a family will wait for their first child and Angelina, falling in love with the Stranger, will be released from his protection.
He says of the book, "it is a haunting blend of naturlism and surrealism, mixing graphic descriptions with elusive, allusive possibilities of meaning".
While the novels stay closely within the rules of the genre, evidence of the changing nature of society led to the decline of the rural way of life.