Julie Trelling, whose mothers dies, goes with her brother to live with thier strict aunt. The author captures Julie's confusion and sadness after losing her mom and also the confusion, joy and challenges of being a teenage girl.
Young Jethro Creighton grows from a boy to a man when he is left to take care of the family farm in Illinois during the difficult years of the Civil War.
A seven-year-old orphan goes to live with her aunt, where she learns new values as she grows to young womanhood. There are many happy memories and sad times too; jealousy of her sister, death of a schoolmate, and disappointment of first love.
After her mother's death, Julie goes to live with Aunt Cordelia, a spinster schoolteacher, where she experiences many emotions and changes as she grows from seven to eighteen.
Seventeen-year-old Ellen's optimistic dream of a bright new century full of hope on New Year's Eve 1899 seems a far cry from the reality of the next 20 years as she and all those close to her fight private and social battles that leave none of their lives unchanged.
