"In later years, Ruth couldn't have explained why the swallows had become a symbol. But she was afraid that the moment her father knocked down their nest, leaving one baby bird at the bottom, that act had become her symbol in her mind for her father." Set in the 1950s in rural British Columbia, Patterns of Swallows follows the fictional life of Ruth Chavinski. Ruth's father deserted her and her mother when Ruth was scarcely old enough to remember him. That event set the pattern for a life of loss and seeming-tragedy. Yet, on a deeper level, her life's pattern was woven on a loom of unfailing love and grace, the threads held firmly in the hands of One who makes no mistakes. Patterns of Swallows is a story of the grace and redemption offered to every person and of the healing this grace and redemption can bring to broken lives.