Prologue, and Rich Chicago Girl Summary

Prologue: The narrator (a fifteen-year-old girl) and her mother are at the Dearborn Train Station in Chicago. They are very poor, and the train ticket (for just the narrator) has broken them. It is 1937, and they are suffering economic hardship from the Great Depression.

The narrator tells the reader that her father lost his job and her brother Joey has joined the Civilian Conservation Corps, a public works project. Until the family recovers financially, the narrator will have to live with Grandma Dowdel in an unnamed town the narrator dismisses as a hick town. The narrator laments having to live in a backwards town with no modern conveniences.

Rich Chicago Girl: The narrator (her name is Mary Alice) gets off the train in Grandma's town. Beyond a few clothes, her only possessions are her cat...