The author presents a panoramic view of her life growing up as a farm girl in a conservative, rural Kansas community of "plain people" during the 1930's and 1940's. Studded with word-pictures and photographs, her story includes both pain and pleasure: her birth mother's death, her "new" family, the farm activities, social and religious life in the community and her teenage angst and rebellion. It culminates in her graduation from junior college.