Sara has worked her entire life to overcome the name Barefield. To be a Barefield in the Appalchian town where she grew up means that you are the poorest of the poor, that you are shiftless and untrustworthy, lazy and stupid. Sara has succeeded in proving that she is none of those things. At the age of forty she has a nice apartment and a good job as a school secretary. When she discovers that she's pregnant, Sara is thrilled. She wants this baby more than she has ever wanted anything. But the father of her baby and the only man Sara has ever loved dies before she tells him that she's pregnant. Sara has five hundred dollars in savings and no means of support after the baby is born. She knows she will have to go on welfare, but she escaped poverty once and is sure she can do it again. But the poverty Sara plunges into after she gives birth is beyond anything she had expected. Facing eviction and the possibility of living on the street, Sara must find a way out of the trap she finds herself in. Fans of Jodi Picoult's books will enjoy .