Where the Lilies Bloom portrays poverty in a realistic light, neither glossing over its ugliness nor dwelling unnecessarily on any of its horrors. Mary Call Luther has promised her father that the family will never accept charity, so the four children must work for a living Without letting anyone find out their father has died. Mary Call comes up with a plan: the family will become "wildcrafters," gathering and selling medicinal plants that grow wild in the mountains. Through extremely hard work, cleverness, and some luck, the Luthers survive. As the book ends one feels that the Luther family will be fine, and probably closer and stronger than ever.

The central conflict in the story revolves around Mary Call Luther's feeling of responsibility for her family. Her sense of obligation to fulfill the promises she made to her dying father leads to her feelings of inadequacy...