The following version was used to make this guide: Hannah, Kristin. The Four Winds. New York, New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2021. The historical fiction is 36 chapters long with a prologue and an epilogue, but for the purposes of this guide will be broken into nine sections.

The novel begins with a prologue and an unidentified voice talking about coming to America, women’s work, and a special American penny. The novel starts in 1921, in Dalhart Texas, with a lonely 25-year-old Elsa. She sits in her parent’s house reading novels, dreaming of something better. Frustrated and fed up, she goes out and finds a man - Rafe Martinelli. She meets him secretly throughout the summer and falls pregnant. Her disapproving parents force her out, abandoning her at the Martinellis. Elsa and Rafe marry quickly, disrupting Rafe’s plans for college. Elsa learns farm life, with the help of Tony and Rose - Rafe’s parents. In the spring Elsa gives birth to a baby girl - Loreda - whom she names after her grandfather who told her to be brave.

Chapter Six begins a new era - 1934, and the introduction of another perspective of Elsa’s daughter Loreda. They are now in the midst of not only the Great Depression but a severe drought in August. Everything is dry and dying, including the town. Elsa picks up Rafe from the bar, and picks up their children Loreda (a young teenager) and her younger son Anthony from school. They pass neighbors leaving for California. In September a dust storm hits them hard. Loreda tries to talk to her father about leaving and their dreams, but he is discouraged, knowing his parents and Elsa will not leave.

The drought continues, and families increasingly start to go west. Rafe grows despondent, asking Elsa to leave but she is worried. One morning Elsa wakes to find Rafe gone. She looks for him at the train depot, finding a note he left for her, telling her not to look for him. Elsa tells her family, and Loreda runs away in the middle of an enormous dust storm, but Elsa saves her. A few months later, a government official from the Civilian Conservation Corps comes to town to talk to them about the government’s plan to pay them not to grow crops to let the land heal, and buy back their cattle. The families are insulted, however.

Winter ends and spring brings rain, but it does not last. The heat kills their crops and their animals start to die. A dust storm rages for days until Ant is so sick with dust pneumonia, Elsa takes him to the hospital. The doctor advises they leave Texas for the sake of Ant’s lungs. They pack up the truck and make plans to leave as a tornado rips through their home, burying everything in dirt. Elsa decides to leave, but Tony and Rose decide to stay, giving Elsa their money from the government. Elsa packs the children in the truck and they make their way out of Texas to California.

The drive to California is treacherous, and the truck almost breaks down in the desert but they make it to Bakersfield. Unable to afford rent, and dismissed as Okies, they camp out in a Hooverville. They make friends with neighbors in a nearby shack - Jean and Jeb Dewey. Elsa struggles to find work, and registers for relief at the state office, though it will take a year to receive. Ant and Loreda enroll in a local school but have a tough time with judgmental kids.

In the summer, Elsa starts working for Welty farms picking cotton, and Loreda joins her that fall. As winter hits, Elsa worries about money. For Christmas, she gives Loreda a library card, and the kids give Elsa an empty journal. At the end of January, Jean goes into labor and Elsa tries to take her to the hospital, but they are turned away. Jean delivers a stillborn, and after burying it Loreda runs away angrily. She gets picked up by Jack on his way to an organizing meeting, but it gets broken up by the police.

Loreda returns home, and winter grows severe. One night it rains so hard the camp is flooded and they lose everything. Jack saves them, and tries to recruit Elsa to help the Workers Alliance, but she refuses. Jack helps Elsa get a cabin and job at Welty Farms, where Elsa soon gets into debt with the company store, realizing the dependent cycle. Elsa finally gets state relief, and keeps visiting Jean at the camp, while Loreda spends time at the library.

All summer they look for work, meanwhile the growers get worried about the workers organizing. Jack grows closer to the family, trying to convince Elsa to strike, but she insists she is not brave enough. In September cotton is ready, and Loreda and Ant pick with Elsa all day. Welty keeps dropping their wages, and prevents them from getting state relief too. Jean gets sick from typhoid and Elsa has to take a bat to the hospital to force them to give her aspirin. Jean dies in the camp, and afterwards Elsa is ready to join the strike.

They start to secretly organize for a strike and spread the word, while Jack and Elsa start a romantic relationship. On October 6, the workers strike, sitting in the cotton field peaceably all day. The next day there are massive crowds in support, but also strikebreakers outside. Jack tries to rally the crowd but the cops hit him, so Elsa takes the megaphone. Her speech is the text of the prologue - until she is shot down. They take her to the hospital but she dies telling her children “Be brave” (438). The Epilogue is told from the first person perspective of Loreda in 1940, standing in front of her mother’s grave back in Texas. She is about to leave for college, the first Martinelli to do so, a girl.