Elsie Dinsmore, now a loving, matronly grandmother, accompanies family and friends on an extended yachting excursion from their southern plantation homes to the World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893. Arriving in the harbor of Chicago on July 2, they are in time to witness the great Independence Day celebration, which serves as a fitting start to a summer of fun and adventure in the White City.
Elsie's family continues to grow and flourish, embracing both new life as well as death. Evelyn's mother, Laura Leland, is very ill with consumption; brothers Arthur and Calhoun Conley both become fathers. Rosie Travilla and Will Croly tie the knot, as do long-time bachelor Dick Percival and Maud Dinsmore. In the midst of change, the family remains steadfastly thankful for all that God has gfiven them.
There is a gathering of the clans in Florida in this new volume of the Elsie Series, and a great deal of information is brought out in informal talks about the history of Florida; there are visits to Jacksonville, St. Augustine, etc, and to Grandma Elsie and other members of the family living south; there is also a wedding, shopping in New Orleans, and two engagements.