The wanderlust of a lovestarved child sets the stage for this saga of
hope and quest. The Limberlost itself - the swampland
of Geneva,
Indiana - hauntingly beautiful, filled with life and the veiled wonders
of nature, calls to Elnora Comstock's hungry heart. She finds solace in
its verdant quiet, and it lends her its peace.
She thirsts also for knowledge, but Elnora's widowed
mother refuses to
spend the money to send her to high
school. So, Elnora turns once again
to her beloved Limberlost for an answer. Selling moths and butterflies
to the "Bird Woman" (a naturalist who is a fictionalization of the
author herself), she scrimps and saves her way through high school.
Through it all, Elnora struggles to win her mother's love - the love
that was lost at the bottom of the Limberlost Swamp - the love that
dies with Elnora's father the night she was born.