In the middle of the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918, sisters Helen and Lutie (Lucretia) sell their family home in Iowa and move to Denver. They buy a home with a basement apartment. Maud, Ronald, and 10-year-old Dorothy Streeter are their tenants. Maud dies from the flu; Ronald disappears; and Dorothy is left alone. Helen and Lutie want to adopt Dorothy.
Helen is a nurse, and her boyfriend Gil is a doctor. Lutie works as a fashion illustrator for a downtown department store which caters to wealthy customers. Lutie is engaged to Peter Howell, a seminary student, who enlists. When Peter is killed his parents are very supportive of Lutie, Helen, and little Dorothy.
When Ronald Streeter reappears to retrieve Dorothy, he is stabbed to death and Helen is left holding the bloody ice pick. Helen confesses that she killed him. Gil helps Helen dispose of the body. They leave the body on the side of the road assuming a “death wagon” patrolling the streets will pick it up.
There is so much more to the story. It is an emotional novel full of love, loss, and family support.
~Emma
Read it or Weep 