Betty lives in a WWII post depression period. Her family is very poor and lives as outcasts in their small town. At the age of seven her mother gives her to her grandmother. She leaves a barely supervised home to enter an extremely strict home. Her father passes away when she is nine. Her grandmother gave her backbone. Her life with her grandmother consists of long hours of hard work.
Betty Gordon continues her stay at Bramble Farm, awaiting word from her uncle. Betty's friend, Bob Henderson, one day learns that a bookstore owner from Washington has looked over his records from the poorhouse.