San Antonio College Library

Reeling from her husband's recent death and the discovery that he had gambled away their home and savings, Iris Chisholm takes a teaching position in a tiny Scottish Highland community, where she becomes involved in the troubles of her charges and pursues relationships with two men.

In 1911, Lucinda Richards begins teaching in Estelline, Texas, where she finds much prejudice and ignorance in her one-room schoolhouse.

In the small college town of Hayden, Illinois, Morgan and Zhenya have settled into a loveless, stagnant marriage. The suicide of their son, Philip, ten years before has left the pair emotionally dead, lacking even the courage to separate from each other. Their surviving child, Emma, has become a teenage mother and refuses to reveal the identity of her child's father. Into this sullen mix marches Peter Ivanovich Kamenev, Zhenya's exasperating father....