Mildred "Millie" Milby is born during a bitter winter storm in Moriarty, New Mexico Territory, in 1908. Two years later, her family moves to Milton, Oregon, where her father starts a grocery business. But when Millie is just nine years old her mother tragically passes away, and, although her father Arthur eventually remarries, the family is never the same. When Millie is fourteen a spat with Arthur's second wife turns ugly, and Millie is sent away...