Trudy Kelly began her life in the rolling hills of Oklahoma in 1915. The child of a sharecropper/preacher, and a tiny, stubborn woman, Trudy feels certain of her father's love, but endures escalating conflict with her bitter mother who struggles to provide for her six children's physical needs but shows little tenderness. After one last climactic encounter, Trudy escapes with a young man she has known all her life but doesn't love. They set out for California, pursuing her husband's dream of owning his own trucking business. The journey takes years and leads them through the depths of the Great Depression and their own worsening relationship. Trudy, with two sons before she turns twenty, becomes accustomed to "making the best of it." Empathy for her mother grows as she begins to understand what Mama's struggles have done to her.At last Trudy and Joe arrive at their destination, but by that point her husband's drinking and abuse have destroyed any chance of her loving him. A devoted reader of the Brontë sisters' novels before her elopement, she gives up on ever finding her Heathcliff-until she meets someone who renews her hopes.However, she soon realizes that real life isn't a romance novel and that relying on her own interior strength is her best option.