Lily Piper and her family believe that the Lord will pluck them from the drought-ravaged Prairie at any moment, so Lily tries to be ready, despite feeling that she is not the daughter her mother wants. In her teens, Lily is sent to England to care for her Grandmother, and learns to experience life in all its ambiguity while waiting for the outbreak of World War II. But then news she has been dreading arrives, and she is called home to face a future she thought she had escaped. c2008.