Meet Ida Mae. You'll learn to love her as she evolves from a spirited thirteen-year-old into a woman, first journeying from Mammoth Falls, West Virginia, to Pitt University on a music scholarship, and from there to Vietnam as a member of the Women's Army Corps. After the loss of her husband in Nam, the Ball Buster's Bash in San Francisco serves as a fine diversion, as does her experience as a salesperson at Holly's Hat on Rodeo Drive in Hollywood, California. She arrives back home in West Virginia in time to travel with friends to Woodstock. Eventually, along with her second husband, Dennis, and her son, Adrian, she travels to Chautauqua, a gated summer resort in northwestern New York, where her adventures and those of her son continue.