Cambridge Springs Public Library

When the creative residents of Elm Creek gather the week after Thanksgiving to work on quilts for Project Linus, they respond to Sylvia's provocative questions to alleviate respective personal challenges and learn helpful lessons about the strength of human connections.

Newlyweds Elizabeth and Henry set out on a cross-country journey to the site of their new home only to discover that they have been the victims of fraud and are now penniless, which forces Henry to take a job as a ranch hand while Elizabeth begins a new quilt.

Facing radical changes in their roles and outlooks when the men in their lives join the Union forces, the women of Elm Creek Valley's quilting bee begin an agonizing period of waiting that is shaped by their husbands' military duties and their respective circumstances.

Struggling with a meager existence on a Prohibition-era farm in Southern California and devastated by the losses of four of her children to a wasting disease, Rosa flees with her surviving children after a shattering act of violence.