Among the intriguing personalities that made life interesting for Will and Julie Summers in Shady Grove, a sleepy little town in Southeast Missouri where Will had been hired as an administrator during the Great Depression, were John Davis, the town's prowling eccentric; Mozella Lewis, a glamorous black teacher and her worthless white boyfriend, Harry Hussy; Marshall Ed Hooks and Father Hank Jolliak, alcoholics, one lovable, one not; dignified Rev. Harry Morton, the passionate black pastor of Zion Hill Baptist Church; ambitious William Jones, cocky prosecutor who officiously presided over two public hangings; Maggie Stanley, a buxom, overweight mother who brawled with her teacher niece, Emily Wickam, in Will's office; Lola Taylor, New York star of stage and screen, who brought culture and heartbreak to Shady Grove; the poker crowd at Elmer Guyton's hardware store; and the gossipy know-it-ails of scandal at Charley Bell's barbershop. These and others made life anything but dull for Will and Julia in Shady Grove, Missouri.