Landvik, Lorna

Violet Mathers, abandoned by her mother and abused by her father, decides to travel to California and throw herself off the Golden Gate Bridge, but a bus accident in North Dakota puts her life on a new course when she is rescued by Austin Sykes and Kjel Hedstrom, a musical team who catch her up in their dreams of stardom during the Great Depression.

When Patty Jane's gorgeous husband disappears, she is left to make a life for herself and her infant daughter, with the help of her sister Harriet and mother-in-law Ione, enduring the joys and sorrows that come into their lives, including the return of a much-changed Thor.

Joe Andreson transfers to a Minneapolis high school in his senior year and hooks up with Kristi Casey; however, after graduation, Joe, who can't quite get over Kristi, becomes a grocer while Kristi becomes a radio-televangelist bound for greater things.