The problem of the Southern plantation share cropper has been handled from various angles, but rarely more convincingly and sympathetically than in this novel. Two young people, with simple ambitions rising to a bit of land of their own, a mule and a little family, love and marry and meet disillusionment in the hopeless cycle of the share cropper's fate, to be always in debt to the landlords, a modern system of slavery. Unlike many thesis novels, this strikes an authentic note in the picture of the young couple, making their story an individual one. The author is known for her children's books. This is her first novel, and shows a maturity of conception not always found when juvenile writers try new paths.