From Follett - The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when being a wife is a woman's only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she decides to change the direction of her life and makes an impulsive choice that ruins her reputation. Elsa is faced with only one respectable choice: marriage to Rafe Martinelli, a man she barely knows. By 1934 the world has changed; millions are out of work and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Farmers are fighting to keep their land and their livelihoods as crops fail, water dries up, and the earth cracks open. Dust storms roll relentlessly across the plains. In this uncertain and perilous time, Elsa--like so many of her neighbors--must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves or leave it behind and go west, to California, in search of a better life for her family"--Provided by publisher.