title: The Penny Wedding
author: Stirling, Jessica
description: Glasgow, 1928. Alison Burnside is sixteen when her mother dies. Her father, Alex, a shipyard worker, unexpectantly supports the idea that Alison should become a doctor, and the family's whole destiny changes. When the 1930s depression hits Glasgow, Alison faces a dilemma, abandon her medical studies to care for her younger brothers and her widowed and unemployed father, or carry on? The grandmother says duty to family comes first, get a job, but the father says pursue glory. Alison will soon encounter temptations that will threaten her ambition, and she turns for support to her teacher and mentor, Jim Abbott, only to realize that they both want more than friendship. Alison finds that she must choose at last between love and marriage, and a medical career and self-fulfillment.