Long before anyone would christen it "The Dust Bowl," Nola Merrill senses the destruction. She's been drying up bit by bit since the day her mother died, leaving her to be raised by a father who withholds his affection the way God keeps a grip on the Oklahoma rain. A hasty marriage to Russ, a young preacher, didn't bring the escape she desired. Now, twelve years later with two children to raise, new seeds of dissatisfaction take root.

Everyone in Wells Landing has long expected Sadie Kauffman and Chris Flaud to marry--despite Sadie's telling them differently. While she loves Chris, it is more as a friend than a husband. Yet at twenty-two, the plainest girl in her group, Sadie is also the only one who is still single. Perhaps it's time to be practical and marry Chris--though he still has not asked. But when Sadie meets a kind, handsome Mennonite, it seems her prayers have been answered....

"Molly Burnett dreads returning to her hometown of Hope for her sister's wedding, especially knowing she'll have to endure a weekend with the one man she never wants to see again. It's only a couple of days, so Molly will try to forget her painful past with her high school sweetheart Carter Richards. Because despite the bitter memories, she still can't forget what they once meant to each other. But when Molly is forced to extend her stay, Carter sees...

The late - as in Dearly Departed - Bailey Ruth Raeburn is delighted when she's assigned a new mission by Heaven's Department of Good Intentions, even if she is no good at following the rules for Earthly Visitations. This time she's determined to be the perfect unseen emissary, no matter what it takes. Arriving late in the evening in her old hometown of Adelaide, Oklahoma to find a woman drowning in a pond, Bailey Ruth carries out a daring rescue with...