Staying a few months with Minnie's sister and her capable, one-armed Welsh husband until Jerry can become breadwinner, the Nobles embark on a new world of adventure in a strange city. They live independently in rented cottages and explore wartime California by bicycle and friends' automobiles, seeing the sights from Fresno to Los Angeles, Sacramento, San Francisco, and Yosemite National Park. As clerk, doorman, draftsman, and student, Jerry encounters optometrists, preachers, projectionists, sailors, singers, soldiers, usherettes. People from all backgrounds and all walks of life help him and his mother depend upon and build their faith in uncertain times.