Book One: her mother's hopeAfter leaving her childhood home of Switzerland, young Marta Schneider dreams of one day owning a boardinghouse, until marriage and motherhood change her ambitions. Determined to give her family a better life, she vows to raise strong children. But her tough love is often misunderstood, especially by her oldest daughter, Hildemara Rose, creating repercussions that will echo for generations.Book Two: her daughter's dreamStruggling to navigate a tense family life, Marta's granddaughter, Carolyn, disappears into the heady counterculture of 1960s San Francisco, only to reemerge two years later, more lost than ever. She reluctantly turns to her family to help rebuild a life for herself and her daughter, May Flower Dawn.But when Dawn develops a closer bond with her grandmother than her own mother, familiar tensions emerge, and Dawn vows to become a bridge between the women in her family rather than the wall that separates them forever.