Dolly is a young four time widow, with three children, determined to start a restaurant to support them in May 1906. She succeeds in an era when women seldom owned businesses. It was not her intent to marry again. An often comical relationship develops the next seven years with Ernest, the bachelor barber at the other end of the building who takes every meal in her establishment. Both have problems to solve. Her quick temper and inability to forgive others for past actions make it difficult to achieve introspection into her own misdeeds. He is quietly thoughtful, yet oversensitive about his stature; he fears female rejection. Follow their comical courtship into a shocking wedding night and through attempts to resolve their basic problems midst dealing with new family and national problems. The story plays out through integral historic aspects of five California cities and towns.