On the eve of the Great Depression, Verna Krone, the child of Irish immigrants, must leave the eighth grade and begin working as a maid to help support her family.
But Verna\'s new life falls to pieces when she is arrested for assisting a black doctor with "i.
Through sheer force of will and a few chance encounters, she manages to teach herself to read and becomes a nurse.
Her employer takes inappropriate liberties, and as Verna matures, it seems as if each man she meets is worse than the last.
On the eve of the Great Depression, Verna Krone, the child of Irish immigrants, must leave the eighth grade and begin working as a maid to help support her family