Alma Caldwell’s diary provides the perspective of teenagers in 1913 and 1914. It begins in the summer of 1913 when activities for young people were abundant, reluctantly chronicles Alma's return to high school for a junior year, hurtles through the heartbreak of a chilling winter, and rockets full blast into the spring and early summer of 1914. The diary’s focus is on Alma and her new boyfriend, Emmet Thornton, and how their lives play out.

Interspersed are clips from two newspapers, the Sulphur Springs Gazette (1862–1928) and the Commerce Journal (1891–present), and magazine clippings illustrating special moments in Alma’s life during the time of the diary.

This is a teenager taking a pencil and writing of love, disappointment, secrets never to be revealed, and joy in an age compared to the present in terms of a young person’s changing social life— silent movies churned out like never before, Model T Fords that were being subject to new laws, frequent passenger train rides, and the heartbeat of US entertainment seen under a tent named the Chautauqua and Lyceum Courses.