- Once upon a time, Bert Breen builds a barn and a house.
- Bert Breen's property is surrounded by mostly useless farmland, so he buys that too.
- Where's he getting the money? Mr. Breen has no account at the bank, so the banker is stumped about where these transactions are coming from.
- When Bert Breen dies, he leaves everything to his wife, Amelie. She mostly keeps to herself except for a few neighborly exchanges with the Hannaberrys, a poor family of five daughters and their no-good father, who does a bad job of providing for them.
- Four of the Hannaberry daughters marry and move away. The other one, Polly Ann, marries and stays local.
- Her husband, Nob Dolan, proves to be a bad husband and provider. He spends his time and money in bars and then disappears five years after his marriage to Polly Ann.
- Maybe he just wanted to turn "Nob Dolan" into "Bob Dylan" and ran off to try to get himself a Nobel Prize?
- Probably not. He's pretty no-good.
- With Bob Dylan out of the picture, Polly Ann is all alone with a boy, twin girls, and a run-down farm and home.