In which Carol Kennicott navigates the varied and sometimes wearisome rhythms of small-town life during the upheavals of war and prosperity, encountering a gamut of characters from the broken Champ Perry to the boisterous booster Jim Blausser. Amidst the growth and noisy ambition of Gopher Prairie, she wrestles with a growing sense of disillusionment as the town’s veneer of progress clashes with her longing for genuine beauty and spirit.