Laughing Not to Cry uses humor to tell the story of a fifty-three-year-old teacher whose husband pillaged her family's flower business, vanished with their life savings, and did it all legally. She struggles to build a new life with her senile father, the Colonel. She prevails against enemies who try to push her out of her job and off her farm, while she rebuilds her family's flower business against all odds. In the process, Dorothy, the trusting wife and victim, becomes a stronger, sassier, wiser version of herself. Her husband returns and tries to ruin her again but this time he confronts a woman to be reckoned with who beats him at his own game.