The Other Side of the Rainbow is about a family during the post Great Depression years. The main character, Bess, is a young woman who has dreams of becoming a teacher. She will be the first in her family to attend college. However, love gets in the way of her dream and she becomes pregnant. But she refuses to tell the baby's father because she knows that he will lose the spark in his eyes if he cannot realize his dream of becoming a doctor. Bess makes a decision that causes some heartache for her and her parents, especially her mother who declares that "the only way Black people can get to the other side of the rainbow is my getting a college education."