During a famine, Jack retrieves a hidden food stash his parents saved as a wedding gift for Nelly and decides to cook it to keep the household alive. At the table he invites Molly and the women to eat with him, but they refuse, saying "we're women" and that ancestral rules forbid them from joining. Jack insists the family will "eat together, and we suffer together," directly challenging the feudal custom. When the women resist, Jack threatens to force compliance "the old way," strides forward and shouts, "Come over here!" leaving the outcome unresolved.