Mamie’s mother gives her to a stranger who takes her to France and teaches her to deal cards, smoke and drink. She marries at fifteen, has a daughter, Sonia. Her husband dies and Mamie raises Sonia by dancing in cabarets. She becomes a drug addict, enduring the Nazis. Her daughter dies, further embittering Mamie. When the war ends she goes to Canada where she contracts polio and is crippled. A woman invites her to church, and she goes to mock but is saved. She becomes a missionary to the bayou of Louisiana.