Everett Weston is a no-good troublemaker. A worthless has-been at the age of eighteen. He is continually in trouble at school and provokes his mother and father often. When he runs away from home and hitches a ride with a man named Slim, he finds himself in Jupiter-a small town with a big heart. Eventually he lands a job and marries a lovely woman. But Everett is not able to fully appreciate his life and is not always a pleasant man to be around-and when his son is born, it appears that Dan will follow in his father's selfish footsteps. Either fate or coincidence leads Dan to Maggie, a...

Patersons cope with adversity and an abusive boss. The story of Kenzie and Erroll Paterson continues in this second book of a four-generational, two-book saga. While living in Scotland, the Patersons buy a farm in Missouri from a traveling salesman. Hoping to escape a life of poverty and conflict, they return to the United States in 1912, after 25 years away. Still struggling with poverty and trying to earn a living from their farm, the Patersons learn that their former boss in Inverness, who claimed to be Erroll's uncle, is an impostor and in a mental hospital. Erroll is heir to an estate...

Patersons ultimately succeed, after poverty and conflict. In 1876, Arthur McCarty insists his daughter, Edna, leave their mansion in the Scottish Highlands and board a ship to Rochester, New York, to further her education. Edna is headstrong and unwilling to leave her father, but she obeys his wishes and makes the journey to New York, where she eventually meets and marries John Paterson. They have a son, Erroll, but a tragedy leaves John to raise Erroll alone. He also finds himself raising a little girl, Kenzie Cox, abandoned by her mother. When the children are five years old, John takes...

Taking over the family farm when his father dies unexpectedly, Billy Thomas becomes an adult before he is ready. But he keeps moving forward, working the family farm in Missouri and planning to marry Susan, the beauty down the road. Nearly killed in a wagon accident, Billy is on the mend when he and Susan marry. Though there is a bad element terrorizing Billy and his family, with the help of those around them, Billy and Susan begin their lives together. But the happy times would not last... Kidnapped and kept as a slave laborer for three years, Billy returns home to find his world torn apart....