They pack up the truck and make plans to leave as a tornado rips through their home, burying everything in dirt. The doctor advises they leave Texas for the sake of Ant’s lungs. A dust storm rages for days until Ant is so sick with dust pneumonia, Elsa takes him to the hospital. The heat kills their crops and their animals start to die. Winter ends and spring brings rain, but it does not last. A few months later, a government official from the Civilian Conservation Corps comes to town to talk to them about the government’s plan to pay them not to grow crops to let the land heal, and buy back their cattle. Elsa tells her family, and Loreda runs away in the middle of an enormous dust storm, but Elsa saves her. She looks for him at the train depot, finding a note he left for her, telling her not to look for him. One morning Elsa wakes to find Rafe gone. Rafe grows despondent, asking Elsa to leave but she is worried. The drought continues, and families increasingly start to go west. Loreda tries to talk to her father about leaving and their dreams, but he is discouraged, knowing his parents and Elsa will not leave. In September a dust storm hits them hard. They pass neighbors leaving for California. Elsa picks up Rafe from the bar, and picks up their children Loreda (a young teenager) and her younger son Anthony from school. Everything is dry and dying, including the town. They are now in the midst of not only the Great Depression but a severe drought in August. In the spring Elsa gives birth to a baby girl - Loreda - whom she names after her grandfather who told her to be brave.Ĭhapter Six begins a new era - 1934, and the introduction of another perspective of Elsa’s daughter Loreda. Elsa learns farm life, with the help of Tony and Rose - Rafe’s parents. Elsa and Rafe marry quickly, disrupting Rafe’s plans for college. Her disapproving parents force her out, abandoning her at the Martinellis. She meets him secretly throughout the summer and falls pregnant. Frustrated and fed up, she goes out and finds a man - Rafe Martinelli.

She sits in her parent’s house reading novels, dreaming of something better. The novel starts in 1921, in Dalhart Texas, with a lonely 25-year-old Elsa. The novel begins with a prologue and an unidentified voice talking about coming to America, women’s work, and a special American penny. The historical fiction is 36 chapters long with a prologue and an epilogue, but for the purposes of this guide will be broken into nine sections. The following version was used to make this guide: Hannah, Kristin.

Synopsis of the four winds