Billy Joe is born. She describes herself and talks about how there is few people left in their family. She also talks about how her father has wanted a boy much more than a girl.

Chapter Two- Rabbit Battles

Two men get into a bet about how many rabbits they can kill, though Billie Joe disagrees with what they are doing.

Chapter Three- Losing Livie

We learn about Livie, who is a friend of Billie Joe who is leaving.

Chapter Four- Me and Mad Dog

Billy Joe is going to go get permission to play piano at an event from her mother. Then the chapter takes a whole new course as Billy Joe describes 'Mad Dog', a boy from school.

Chapter Five- Permission to Play

Billie Joe gets permission to play at the concert.

Chapter Six- On Stage

Billy Joe describes playing the piano on stage, and how it means everything to her.

Chapter Seven- Birthday for F.D.R.

Billy Joe plays piano at the local birthday of Franklin Roosevelt.

Chapter Eight- Not Too Much To Ask

1931 was a good year for crops. The times are bad. An evil wind occurs- and the family’s only hope- three jars of apple sauce, some cured pork and baby-clothes. Without these- there can be nothing, and there can be nothing without these. But when the committee comes in, theres nothing you can do, but lose those three things. Those three things that Billy Joe’s family loved so much, and Billy Joe’s family loved those three things.

Chapter Nine- Mr. Hardly's Money Handling

It's Billy Joe’s fathers birthday. Billy Joe is sent to fetch stuff they need for a cake with an extra fifty cents they stashed away, and runs into Mr. Hardly. He really is a grump. He makes a mistake, giving change, and gives Billy Joe four cents extra, so she is forced to go back and hand over the money. Billy Joe regrets it, because she could have bought music with that few cents instead.

Chapter Ten- Fifty Miles South of Home

In this chapter, Billy Joe thinks of a town named Armarillo.

Chapter Eleven- Rules of Dining

Billie Joe tells of the rules of eating at the dinner table, and how everything has dust in it, milk, chicken- everything.

Chapter Twelve- Breaking Drought

Some rain comes, but just a little

Chapter Thirteen- Dazzled

Billie Joe describes her mother, yet still we only know her as Ma. She is very good at the piano. Billie Joe started learning piano when she was five.

Chapter Fourteen- Debts

Billie Joe’s father is thinking of taking a loan from a mister Roosevelt. He is determined to think that there will be rain, yet it’s hard to really think so for him.

Chapter Fifteen- Foul as Maggoty Stew

Billie Joe and her mother are having disagreements. Her mother is also against Billie Joe playing piano.

Chapter Sixteen- State Tests

Billie Joe’s school scored highest in the state and she scored 1^{st in grade eight. Her mother is not at all thrilled, and Billie Joe wishes she was.}

Chapter Seventeen- Fields of Flashing Light

She goes outside at night while her parents are sleeping. She witnesses all the plants blowing away into the dust. The dust turns towards the house, and her father goes out to try and stop it. He comes in hours later and coughs up dust.

Spring 1934

Chapter Eighteen- Tested by Dust

Billie Joe and her class take tests at school as the dust storm rages ever onward outside.

Chapter Nineteen- Banks

The bank the family is using closes down, and that means they get all their money in a full payment.

Chapter Twenty- Beat Wheat

One quarter of the city’s wheat supplies is blown away in the dust. There’s barely enough for planting for next year.

Chapter Twenty One- Give up on Wheat

Ma and Pa (Bayard) argue over what plant to plant next. Father wants wheat, and Ma wants apples. Who will win, I wonder?

Chapter Twenty Two- What I Don't Know

Billie Joe hasn’t heard of a play her teacher is in, and she wonders what else she doesn’t know.

Chapter Twenty Three- Apple Blossoms

Billie Joe enjoys the soft smell of flowers and recalls how her mother took and still takes very much care over her apple blossom plants, the only thing still left to grow in the town.

Chapter Twenty Four- World War

Bayard fought in a world war. All he remembers is the poppies. Billie Joe wishes that poppies grew out of the dust.

Chapter Twenty Six- Apples

Billie Joe ponders about every single little way to eat an apple. She most certainly did NOT leave any way out. Well, maybe. The apples are nearly ready to eat. Yum.

Chapter Twenty Seven- Dust and Rain

Quite a bit more dust comes. After that, quite a bit of rain comes. Next, quite a bit of wheat is washed away, and quite a bit of Bayard is angry. Very angry.

Chapter Twenty Eight- Harvest

The harvest comes, hence the title. People start selling their wheat, but there is not much wheat to be sold.

Chapter Twenty Nine- On The Road With Arley

Billie Joe, in this chapter, talks about the piano again. She is getting money from Arley Waterdale to play. Her mother only allows her to play because of the money earnings.

Chapter Thirty- Hope in a Drizzle

Billie Joe’s mother is happy, and so is everybody else, because the rain has come.

Chapter Thirty One- Dionne Quintuplets

Somewhere in Canada, a lady has quintuplets.

Chapter Thirty Two- Wild Boy of The Road

A Homeless boy comes to their house looking for food and shelter. Ma gives him milk and biscuits, a haircut, shower, and leaves on his way. Billie Joe wonders weather or not she might one day run towards California, as the boy is doing.

Chapter Thirty Three- The Accident

Bayard places a pot of kerosene next to the stove. Ma, thinking it was water, poured it into the kettle. The kettle burns. A screaming ma runs out of the room. Billie Joe picks up the flaming pot, and pours it outside, not realizing her mother is right there. They are both burnt. Billie Joe on the hands, and her mother on the stomach.

Chapter Thirty Four- Burns

Both their burns are looked at by Doctor Rice. The skin is torn away from Billie Joe’s hands.

Chapter Thirty Five- Nightmare

Billie Joe has a nightmare. She goes inside, and plays the piano, which is torturing someone. She goes to get her mother a glass of fire to drink. Ma gives birth to a baby made of flames, which screamed and cried beside ma. She then goes over to another house, and plays the piano, with stubs of flesh for hands. She wakes up only to realize the part about the hands was not a dream at all.

Chapter Thirty Six- A Tent of Pain

Ma is inside a tent, so that nothing can touch her. Though Ma has not very much skin left. Billie Joe can’t stand the screams coming from the tent anymore.

Chapter Thirty Seven- Drinking

Bayard uses the last of the families money to go out drinking at a pub. Billie Joe tries to help her mother but only makes her cry harder.

Chapter Thirty Eight- Devoured

Grasshoppers come and devour all of the wheat, apples, and all other plants of the field. Billie Joe can’t get herself to tell her mother about the apples gone.

Chapter Thirty Nine- Blame

Ma and the baby die, and they all have a service. In the service, everyone is blaming Billie Joe for the death of her mother.

Chapter Forty- Birthday

Billie Joe Goes back to a graveyard, to visit her mother.

Chapter Forty One- Roots

Because of the bad weather, the president of the United States tells everybody to plant trees to break the wind.

Chapter Forty Two- The Empty Spaces

Billie Joe and her father are becoming more apart, and Bayard keeps staring at her hands.

Chapter Forty Three- The Hole

Bayard is digging a hole in the yard- forty feet by sixty feet, for a pond, and spends all of his time digging.

Chapter Forty Four- Kilauea

A volcano is Hawaii goes off, and it reminds Billie Joe of dust.

Chapter Forty Five- Boxes

Billie Joe keeps all of the stuff from her early years in two boxes in her room, but with her hands hurting so much, and all the stress, dosn't want to open them.

Chapter Forty Six- Night Bloomer

A plant as big as a saucer blooms at night in Mrs. Brown's yard.

Chapter Forty Seven- The Path of Our Sorrow

Billie Joe's teacher talks about how the price of wheat is coming down, and that people are all struggling to make enough money to feed everybody.

Chapter Forty Eight- Hired Work

Bayard gets work at a job where he gets to dig, and Billie joe wonders about how she used to bring in money for the family.

Chapter Forty Nine- Almost Rain

Rainclouds come- but the rain dosn't

Chapter Fifty- Those Hands

Coach Albright used to approach Billie Joe about playing basketball- but not anymore, because of her hands.

Chapter Fifty One- Real Snow

A little Christmasy snow comes, and makes everybody happy.

Chapter Fifty Two- Dance Revue

Billie Joe tries the piano again at a dance revue where Arley Waterdale and Mad-Dog are.

Chapter Fifty Three- Mad Dog’s Tale

Mad Dog tells everybody how he got his name- by biting everything he saw when he was young.

Chapter Fifty Four- Art Exhibit

Billie Joe finds herself loving the paintings in an art exhibit in the courthouse.

Chapter Fifty Five- State Tests Again

Billie Joe wishes she could see her mother say "I knew you could" again, because their state test results were twenty-four points higher than average.

Chapter Fifty Six- Christmas Dinner Without the Cranberry Sauce

Billie Joe is worried she might be the only motherless one at the school Christmas Dinner, but she isn't. Bayard nd her have a silent Christmas Dinner at home together afterward.

Chapter Fifty Seven- Driving the Cows

Some people have to kill their cows, because of lack of food for them.

Chapter Fifty Eight- First Rain

Plenty of rain comes during the night- and the farmers rejoice!

Chapter Fifty Nine- Haydon P. Nye

Haydon P. Nye dies, and everybody remembers how good times were when he was just born.

Chapter Sixty- Scubbling Up Dust

If Ma were still alive, Billie Joe wouldn't have to do all the back-breaking work around, like scraping up the crusted mud from the rain.

Chapter Sixty One- Outlined by Dust

Billie Joe thinks of how she acts very much like her father, and how they both still miss ma.

Chapter Sixty Two- The Presidents Ball

Billie Joe and Bayard go to the Franklin D Roosevelt dance.

Chapter Sixty Three- Lunch

The schoolkids all get a big lunch from the farms as part of a celebration.

Chapter Sixty Four- Guests

Some people come and stay in the school overnight because of the dust.

Chapter Sixty Five- Family School

The people staying at the school are given clothes and food from the students, and stay long, and help work at the school.

Chapter Sixty Six- Birth

The baby of the guests is born.

Chapter Sixty Seven- Time to Go

The guests leave, but Billie Joe wants to go with them.

Chapter Sixty Eight- Something Sweet from Moonshine

A couple of people are aressted for illegally making whiskey by the lake, and ten thousand pounds of sugar from the operation is delivered to the students for them all to have cakes and pies and candy.

Chapter Sixty Nine- Dreams

Billie Joe dreams of people being entranced by her piano playing. She signs up for a contest where she can play.

Chapter Seventy- The Competition

Billie Joe, at the competition, wins third prize. One dollar in prize money.

Chapter Seventy One- The Piano Player

She is offered a chance to do more piano playing, but refuses.

Chapter Seventy Two- No Good

She thinks she's no good at piano anymore.

Chapter Seventy Three- Snow

Some snow comes.

Chapter Seventy Four- Night School

Bayard goes to night school- for something to fall back on. Billie Joe dosn't know what to think.

Chapter Seventy Five- Dust Pneumonia

Pete Guymon, a supplier for the grocery store, dies on the job.

Chapter Seventy Six- Dust Storm

Billie Joe comes back from a show in a dust storm, and is really bothered by the dust poking at her eyes. She gets home, and waits for her father, also caught in the dust storm, looking for her.

Chapter Seventy Seven- Broken Promise

It rained everywhere but Billy Joe's town.

Chapter Seventy Eight- Motherless

Billie Joe remembers her mother.

Chapter Seventy Nine- Following in His Steps

Haydon P. Nye's wife dies two months after he does, of the same illness.

Chapter Eighty- Heartsick

Billie Joe and her father are even more apart.

Chapter Eighty One- Skin

Spots of raised skin are appearing on Bayard.

Chapter Eighty Two- Regrets

Billie Joe thinks she shouldn't go near Mad Dog anymore, but she does anyway.

Chapter Eighty Three- Fire on the Rails

Everything is catching fire!

Chapter Eighty Four- The Mail Train

Billie Joe is invited to stay with her Aunt Arley, but she is not sure what to do.

Chapter Eighty Five- Migrants

Everybody is migrating out of town around Billie Joe.

Chapter Eighty Six- Blankets of Black

Lots of days of sun and no dust come, but the dust finally does come again, in billowing clouds.

Chapter Eighty Seven- The Visit

Mad Dog comes to visit and stays longer than he expects to.

Chapter Eighty Eight- Freak Show

A man comes by wanting to take pictures of oddities around the country, and isn't dissapointed when he sees the dust.

Chapter Eighty Nine- Help from Uncle Sam

The government is paying money to have them continue their farm.

Chapter Ninety- Let Down

Billie Joe just stares at the keyboard when she's invited to play at graduation, and lets everybody down.

Chapter Ninety One- Hope

Tons of rain and tons of snow comes down, reassuring everyone and giving them hope again.

Chapter Ninety Two- The Rain's Gift

Some grass grows, and the cattle is sent to graze on it instead of eating their normal feed.

Chapter Ninety Three- Hope Smothered

Dust returns, and washes away all of the hope they had been holding.

Chapter Ninety Four- Baby

A baby is put up for adoption, but Bayard says that they can't take him in, because they wouldn't even be able to offer the baby a ma.

Chapter Ninety Five- Old Bones

There's a dinasaur bone site in the town, but Bayard dosn't want for them to go see it.

Chapter Ninety Six- The Dream

Billie Joe dreams about the piano.

Chapter Ninety Seven- Midnight Truth

Bayard and Billie Joe are slipping apart even more.

Chapter Ninety Eight- Out of the Dust

Billie Joe leaves West on a train, without her father's permission.

Chapter Ninety Nine- Gone West

Billie Joe sees someone she knows outside the train.

Chapter One Hundred- Something Lost, Something Gained

Billie Joe talkes to a hobo on the train about her history, and he tells about his.

Chapter One Hundred and One- Homeward Bound

Billie Joe wants to go back home

Chapter One Hundred and Two- Met

Billie Joe and Bayard finally have a whole conversation, and he promises to see Doc Rice about the spots on his skin.

Chapter One Hundred and Three- Cut it Deep

Bayard is diagnosed with skin cancer.

Chapter One Hundred and Four- The Other Woman

A lady named Louise is staying with Bayard and Billie Joe.

Chapter One Hundred and Five- Not Everywhere

Billie Joe dosn't like Louise go everywhere with them, though she wants to.

Chapter One Hundred and Six- My Life, or What I Told Louise After the Tenth Time she Came to Dinner

Billie Joe tries to sum up her life in a few scentances to Louise.

Chapter One Hundred and Seven- November Dust

Their hard work with the wheat and the pond is paying off.

Chapter One Hundred and Eight- Thanksgiving List

Billie Joe lists all the things she's thankful for.

Chapter One Hundred and Nine- Music

Billie Joe is getting better at music again.

Chapter One Hundred and Ten- Teamwork

Louise and Billie Joe talk to each other, while cleaning up the pots and pans Bayard dosn't put away.

Chapter One Hundred and Eleven- Finding a Way

Everything seems to be looking better for the two and Louise, who are getting along nicely.