This is the summary I have created from gathering information from Eli's flashbacks presented throughout the novel. It should explain alot and I hope it helps.

'Once upon a time...a long, long time ago, there was a poor farmer and his wife. They had three children. A boy and a girl both old enough to work together with the adults. And then a little boy, only eleven years old. Everyone who saw him said he was the most beautiful child they had ever seen.
'The father was in villeinage to the lord who owned the land, and had to work many days for him. Therefore it often fell to the mother and her...