Doris is the youngest of four children. Her parents leave her alone to go out drinking, and she is molested, leaving her bitter. Friends invite her to Vacation Bible School where she learns the gospel but doesn’t repent. Ashamed of her poverty, she rebels as a teenager and falls in with a rough crowd that steals cars and vandalizes. She ends up in reform school several times, then tries to straighten up. She drops out of school and begins dating Pete, whose family is part of an isolated, doctrinally strict church. The first part ends when they secretly marry because she is pregnant.