Most of the stories were written out for the creative thesis Petsco submitted to the Department of English at Brigham Young University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for her Master of Arts degree. Thus, the text, with the exception of minor changes and corrections is her Master's thesis. The major difference between her thesis and this book is the inclusion of Kate's drawings.

It is evident that Béla and Kate are attempting the same purpose in their different mediums: capturing their impressions of the people they observed around them. Béla describes her work as "stories about people who happen to be Mormons." The drawings complement the stories or enhance the mood of the book; they are not illustrations.