The biography begins with Louisa's birth in Germantown, Pennsylvania, in 1832 and ends with her death in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1888. For most of her life Louisa resided in or around Boston and nearby Concord, Massachusetts.

By the time Louisa was twenty-eight years old, the household had been uprooted and moved twenty-nine times, generally for financial reasons. The Alcotts lived for an extended period of time at Hillside, one of their homes in Concord. Louisa had her first writing success here, a play featuring the character Duke Roderigo. The family also lived for quite a while in a dilapidated building in Concord that they purchased and worked diligently to renovate. Although officially christened Orchard House, Louise irreverently called the building Apple Slump.

Louisa spent several months in Europe on two separate occasions, once as companion to an ailing young woman and once with May Alcott and a family friend, Alice...