Anne grows up with a repressive mother, a kind stepfather and a grandmother who reads the Bible and takes her to church. Anne wants to be a missionary but secular teachers destroy her faith and she goes to business college instead. Her mother quashes successive attempts to date and then sends Anne to a delinquent girl’s school. Embittered, Anne lives to have fun. During the Depression she learns the grocery business, dates Fred, and marries him before he goes off to the war. Her Aunt is saved. When Fred comes home, their marriage falters because of Anne’s willfulness. But they remarry and continue to struggle. The first part ends when Anne comes to Christ.