After Peter sweeps Maryanne off her feet, she scraps her plans to meet Thomas, her arranged husband, in San Francisco, marries Peter instead, and sets up home in Omaha. The marriage is idyllic, and when she falls pregnant after a while, she feels her happiness is complete. After being initially indifferent to Albert's arrival, Peter warms to him, and Maryanne assumes that life couldn't get better. However, fate has a few lessons in store for her. When two tragedies strike, in relatively quick succession, Maryanne has cause to re-evaluate her life completely, and finally wonder whether she should resume her interrupted journey to San Francisco. Will Thomas take her back? Does she deserve happiness after disappointing him so much? As her aunt points out to her when they meet again - you cannot make your children's mistakes for them, you have to let them make them themselves.