Nevertheless, Maggie keeps the location where she found Alex a secret and lies about the fact that the boy's sister was still alive when Maggie rescued him. She and Pauline return home with the child, whom the Brights will name Alex, and inquiries as to his parentage are soon abandoned in light of the sheer number of orphaned children already taxing city authorities.

When Pauline and Maggie visit the slums on a charitable mission, Maggie wanders into a row house by herself and finds its occupants dead or dying except for a squalling, neglected infant boy. As the death toll mounts, Fred’s genteel funeral parlor becomes an auxiliary morgue. Shortly thereafter, the influenza epidemic grips Philadelphia. What appears to be a slow-paced and rather morbid tale of domesticity gains momentum when Thomas volunteers to serve in the Army and leaves for basic training. Pauline becomes obsessed with death and insinuates herself into the mortuary business to an extent Fred never contemplated. At the time of the move, the Brights are still reeling from the death of baby son Henry. Pauline and the daughters narrate in turn. Since he has no other heirs, Fred intends, in time, to bequeath his funeral business to the Brights. Leaving Thomas’ family tobacco farm in Quakertown, Pennsylvania, the family moves to Philadelphia, where Thomas’ bachelor uncle, Fred, a mortician, has offered to teach him the undertaker’s trade. The Brights, Pauline and Thomas and their daughters, Evelyn, Maggie, and Willa, relocate to better their future. In the final year of the Great War, an American family copes with the Spanish flu pandemic.

As bright as heaven