Summary

Fraser begins this chapter with a description of the prosperous conditions of the 1920s, when wheat prices were high and there was a housing boom across the Great Plains. Rose was riding her own boom, as she had profited from the stock market. Returning to Rocky Ridge in 1928, she decided to build her parents a house and to build a house for their tenant farmer. The Rock House, as this house came to be known, was built based on a Sears, Roebuck designed. Rose spared no expense in its construction and hired an architect and contractor. The house wound up costing $11,000, five times more than the kit it was based on.

As Rose supervised each detail, she ignored her own work. She spiraled down into a deep depression, and she broke off relationships with several old friends, including novelist Sherwood Anderson, who...