As in her earlier work, Christy, Marshall incorporates some of the devices of the romance novel in this work as she presents her social, political, and spiritual themes. Other Christian writers who present their stories in the trappings of the romance novel include Janette Oke and Eugenia Price. Marshall's social concerns in this work — the exploitation of factory workers by a greedy upper class — are reminiscent of those of muckrakers such as Sinclair Lewis.