Inthe depressed mining town of Creedons Corners in Pennsylvania, Kate Donovan is plunged into widowhood when her husband shoots himself on Christmas Eve. A mother of four children and another stirring in the womb, twenty-four year old Kate is told to "put them kids in an orphanage" by a bitter Irish mother and iron-working brothers. With the depression crippling the country, the parish priest comes to her assistance. When hard times persist, Kate gives up her only son, Danny, to a boy's orphanage in Philadelphia. The act alienates the boy from his mother for the rest of her life. In World War II, Kate moves to Detroit to take a job in a defense plant and leaves teenage daughters in Pennsylvania to cope on their own. Kate's life unravels when her daughters become victims of her judgments. A Cold Heaven offers a rich background of Irish culture, wakes, weddings and the entire "goings on" that makes the family the center of the universe. The wisdom dispensed around the kitchen table over a "cuppa" tea, puts life's problems in its proper perspective. A Cold Heaven is a story of survival; a journey into the Irish psyche, their unique ability to see humor in the mostheart-breaking situations and the fierce pride that brings dignity to their downtrodden lives.