The novel opens with Patty Bergen, 12, at the Jenkinsville train station, watching German prisoners of war being transported to the new POW camps. She is expecting to see defeat in the faces of the arriving prisoners, but the scene is more humdrum than dramatic, and she leaves disappointed. Patty walks home, where she greets Ruth, her family’s African American housekeeper and nanny, who takes care of her and her younger sister, Sharon. Patty wants to talk about the importance of winning the war, but she restrains herself because she can see that Ruth is too burdened with worry about her son, Robert, who has been deployed. Instead, Patty tells Ruth that she will pray for Robert, which makes Ruth smile.

Patty fantasizes, looking out on the hot green landscape, that her parents have been stuck in an Alaskan blizzard in their store for four days and nights. Ruth begs Patty not to try to save them, but Patty insists on bringing a thermos of hot soup and sandwiches, feeding her parents and nursing them back to health, after which they respond by showering her with love and praise.

Ruth tries to get Patty to eat and tries to dissuade her from walking to her parents’ general store, where both her mother and father are at work.