The children weren't home alone, but with Mama a patient at Oakdale Tuberculosis Sanitorium, a family discovers they are capable of more than they thought. Papa is a kind father, but he expects cooperation and harmony in the home. Mama struggles with her illness and learns to rely upon the wisdom of a "whatsoever" scripture verse to fight discouragement and homesickness. The girls, Blanche and Emily, due to an overheard conversation, fear their family could be separated and their precious baby brother taken away. Blanche is old enough to stay home and care for little brother, but what she desperately wants is to go to high school. Meanwhile, she meets a girl in the Bible who is given the duty of protecting her baby brother, and the example offers Blanche encouragement. This novel, for old or young readers, follow the family as they sort it out on a small farm in southwest Iowa during the mid-1920's.