Tia Fiskum, the old maid of Tolga Township, yearns to retain her hold on the family farm after her shell-shocked brother returns from World War II. The neighbor she hopes to marry chooses a town girl for his new wife.The Potato King listens to the radio preacher and prays for a miracle. Eddy Root fears a return to the asylum. A German war bride struggles to find acceptance in this tight-knit Scandinavian community. Woven throughout is the man who walks lizards, a grieving father, a disillusioned pastor and the neighborhood gossipmonger. Shelterbelts chronicles the life of a community struggling to return to normal after war, true to history while rich in the complications of the human spirit.

Fourth in the Abercrombie Trail series, Blooming Prairie is the conclusion to Evan's story of living through the 1862 Uprisings and making a new life on the Minnesota prairie.