Book one, The Gift, takes us back to the days of WWII with a set of cassette tapes telling the story of three Iowa farm girls who went to California to work at an aircraft factory and hospital at a nearby navy base. Grace, a country schoolteacher, and her younger twin sisters Vera and Violet. When they returned, their family would never be the same. 

In the contemporary story, Gracie puts together an exhibit of local quilts and tries to resolve the problems in her long-distance relationship with Steve. When Aunt Violet moves to town, Gracie gets an unexpected gift from Grandma Grace, who died two years earlier. Aunt Violet explains that she found it and saved it, waiting for the right time. The gift is a large wicker basket filled with a quilt, two aprons, and several shoeboxes, including a small cassette recorder and a box of tapes. As Gracie listens to the recordings with Aunt Violet, she hears her grandma Grace tell a story about her family and the "California" patchwork quilt, hidden away for sixty years. As Grandma Grace used to say, "Every quilt has a story."