Nine-year-old Josefina, the youngest of four sisters living in New Mexico in 1824, tries to help run the household after her mother dies.

In 1932 Kit finds that she has hard lessons to learn about the Depression, Both at home, where she is helping her mother run a boarding house while her father looks for a new job, and at school, where a fight spoils the preparations for the Thanksgiving pageant.

Nine-year-old Josefina wants to give up learning to play the piano until she sees the joy it brings to her baby nephew. Discusses the importance of music on the New Mexican frontier and describes how to dance La Vaquerita.

Ruthie Smithens makes up her mind to help her friend Kit and her family when she learns they are being evicted from their house.

Christmas in Williamsburg means a dancing party at the Governor's Palace for Felicity, but her mother becomes very ill and cannot finish the special blue gown.

While her father is away fighting in World War II, Molly finds her life full of change as she eats terrible vegetables from the victory garden and plans revenge on her brother for ruining her Halloween.

When her father's business closes because of the Great Depression forcing Kit to make changes in her life, the nine-year-old responds with resourcefulness.

During a visit to her grandfather's plantation in Virginia during the summer of 1775, Felicity's loyalty is torn between her father and Ben, her father's apprentice who needs her help as he runs away to join George Washington's army of Patriots.

The outbreak of the Revolutionary War in 1775 brings drastic changes to Felicity's life in Williamsburg, affecting both her family and her friendship with Elizabeth.