As we come into the 1950s, we find Hildemara back in the TB Sanitarium. Trip calls Oma Marta, Hildie's mom, to come help with the house and children so that he can bring Hildemara home, probably to die. Marta comes to help and begins to form a special bond with Carolyn, Hildie's daughter, as she begins caring for the family. Hildie resents what is happening and determines to get well so that she can recapture what she feels she is losing. When she is well enough to care from them herself, she sends Marta home.

There is a strained relationship between Hildie and Marta, as well as between Hildie and Carolyn. The special bond between Oma Marta and Carolyn seems to grow even stronger with the years, especially when the family moves out of town and builds a mother-in-law cottage for Marta to live next to them.

Carolyn's college years in the 60s and early 70s bring sadness to the family. After her brother Charlie is killed in Vietnam, Carolyn quits college to protest the war and gets heavier into drugs and alcohol and sleeping around. The family doesn't even know where she is. After a couple of years, Carolyn finds herself at the very bottom and decides to go home. But trouble comes with her when she finds that she is pregnant.

Hildie decides that the best thing to do is send her away to a friend's to stay until she has her baby. Carolyn resents being sent away just after she has come back home. Then her baby, May Flower Dawn, proves to be yet another wall that is erected between mother and daughter. Hildie completely takes over Carolyn's life and lays out a plan for her to finish school and get back on her feet. That plan includes Hildie taking care of May Flower Dawn. Another special bond is created between grandmother and granddaughter, yet the wall between Carolyn and Hildie grows thicker.

As Dawn grows up, marries, and is expecting her first child after two miscarriages, she is determined not to let history repeat itself. Can she help bring down the walls between these generations? Can she help resurrect a bridge instead to bring Hildie and Carolyn closer together?

The dramatic ending to this epic saga is heartwarming, inspirational and selfless. You'll be filled with emotion to the very end. Francine Rivers once again captures the essence of a time gone by and the intricacies of relationships.

Book Summary

In the dramatic conclusion to Her Mother's Hope, the Cold War has begun and Carolyn is struggling to navigate her shifting family landscape and the changing times. With her mother, Hildemara, away in a tuberculosis sanatorium, Carolyn develops a special bond with her Oma Marta. But when Hildie returns, tensions between she and Marta escalate, and Carolyn feels she is to blame. College offers the chance to find herself, but a family tragedy shatters her independence. Rather than return home, she cuts all ties and disappears into the heady culture of San Francisco. When she reemerges two years later, more lost than ever, only her family can help rebuild a life for her and her daughter, May Flower Dawn. Just like Carolyn, May Flower Dawn develops a closer bond with her grandmother, Hildie, than with her mother, causing yet another rift between generations. But as Dawn struggles to avoid the mistakes of those who went before her, she vows that somehow, she will be a bridge between her mother and grandmother rather than the wall that separates them forever. Spanning the 1950s to the present day, Her Daughter's Dream is the final chapter of an unforgettable epic family saga about the sacrifices every mother makes for her daughter-and the very nature of unconditional love.