On the first day of 1930, a young single woman from Iowa took the train to Denver for a
job as a church schoolteacher. Each day for six months, Ruthie recorded her life in a
Milestone diary - capturing the sweet spot in Denver history between the Stock Market
crash and the Great Depression. This book is a work of historical fiction weaving
together factual diary entries with the fictional story of love, lies, deception and murder.
In Denver, Ruthie waits every day for another letter from Walter, the farmer boyfriend
she left behind, who pleads for her return. She becomes friends with Rose, an aging
flapper; is pursued by investigative reporter Buckshot; falls under the influence of
manipulative school principal Mr. Keul; becomes a reclamation project of society woman
Mrs. Press; and attempts to tame Mary Helen, her most stubborn student.
As a novice teacher, Ruthie deals with self-doubt, homesickness, and temptations. She
struggles with an anger inherited from her alcoholic father and critical mother. On the
dark streets of Denver, she carries a straight razor and a revulsion for the skid row
bums who remind her of her father. In Denver, nothing is what it seems. Most of all
Ruthie.