Rainey was born during the great depression in a rural country in Arkansas. She was born of a sickly, prostitute mother, who lived with a grandmother on a small, hard scrabble piece of farmland. Their situation was so dire, with the mother knowing she had not long to live, and the grandmother too old to attempt to raise a child under such difficult circumstances, the mother reluctantly offers Rainey up for adoption. (This was not uncommon during the depression when children were shunted off to relatives or neighbors.) Given first to another farm family, which by today's standards would be considered dysfunctional, she runs away at the age of six. She eventually ends up with a group of women, mostly old-maid schoolteachers, who make some attempt to restore a degree of normalcy to the child's life. This is the nearest thing to a functional family she would ever know, but an unfortunate and ill-advised wartime marriage, once again, turns her on the wrong road of life. She goes through a series of misfortunes, including a jail term, before she eventually meets the love of her life. But once again, fate is cruel to her because he is married. She has an illegitimate child by him and, knowing he cannot marry her, leaves him with no forwarding address. She returns to the area of her childhood, where he, now single, eventually finds her, and in true romance fashion, they are brought together and supposedly live happily-ever-after.