Air Force Sergeant Rock Hanigan is a decorated WWII vet married to blues singer Annie McBreen. Transferred, he leaves Annie and six kids behind to survive the harsh Illinois winters in an old farmhouse on the prairie. Returning years later, he takes his family from Illinois to France, Germany, Oklahoma, South Carolina and finally to Washington State. Told through the eyes of the middle child, life among the Hanigans is never dull as gamblers, farmers, grocery store owners, rednecks, nuns, gangsters and the local church ladies all get involved in Annie's unorthodox life and teach her and her children that home is more than just a place and some people just ain't right and no matter what you do they ain't ever going to be right.