Set mainly in the eighteen sixties near Chicago, A Life Worth Living is a love story. It is the story of Jane Cooper-Weatherly and the man she loves, above all else in her life. But it is also a love story of the people Jane comes to call her family. From the time Jane leaves home after caring for her ailing mother, she is free to forge her own history; but early on there are rumors of trouble with the upcoming election. A man name Abraham Lincoln is running for the presidency. Jane is thrown into harms way when she accepts a teaching interim position in town and she doesn't realize just how close to danger she truly is. And soon the country goes into Civil War. Jane's new husband, Robert, volunteers for duty as a doctor for the North, leaving Jane behind, not knowing that she is now pregnant, not knowing if he will be able to return. And Jane carries on as best she can, trusting in love to get Robert through. This story is bracketed in the beginning and end by a much older Jane reminiscing about this early time in her life. At the end, when we return from Jane's reminiscences, now 1910, we see fully that hers was a life well worth living.