As the country struggles through the Great Depression, the Darling Dahlias of Darling, Alabama, are determined to keep their chins up. Their garden club has a clubhouse, a garden, a flag, a weekly column in The Darling Dispatch, and members from across the social spectrum. But when a treasure trove of sterling silver is found buried under the town's famous Cucumber Tree, two of the Dahlias claim it - which leads to some very unladylike behavior.

"When two Depression-era migrant workers, Paul and Vern, find an abandoned baby in the woods, they take it upon themselves to care for the mysterious child. When fifteen-year-old Marigold, reviled by her family after an unwanted pregnancy, loses her baby in the forest, her whole world is painted black. She's still fraught with despair when she discovers what seems to be a miraculous power within her. Coot, a child preacher on the Kansas plains, escapes...

"Violet Figg and her sister Trudy have lived a quiet life in Sugar Bend, Alabama, since a night forty years ago that stole Trudy's voice and cemented Violet's role as her sister's fierce and loyal protector. Now Trudy spends her days making sculptures from found objects and speaking through notes written on scraps of paper, while Violet runs their art shop, monitors bird activity up and down the water, and tries not to think of the one great love...