Plot

Each member of the Frake clan has his/her own reason for attending the annual Iowa State Fair.

The farm family Frake heads for the Iowa State Fair. On the first day, discontented daughter Margy and her brother Wayne meet attractive new flames, as does Father's prize hog Blue Boy. As the fair proceeds, so do the romances. Must sweethearts separate when the fair closes?—Rod Crawford <puffinus@u.washington.edu>

The Frakes--father Abel, mother Melissa, and young-adult children Wayne and Margy--are an Iowa farm family getting ready to go to the multi-day Iowa State Fair. Wayne isn't looking forward to leaving his girlfriend Eleanor behind, and Margy just wants to be a relationship with a real man instead of being courted by--and unofficially engaged to--the boorish Harry Ware. At the fair, Melissa is hoping she made the right decision about the mincemeat she has entered for judging, and Abel's potentially prize-winning boar Blue Boy has a case of lovesickness. Also lovestruck are Wayne and Margy--Wayne with big-band singer Emily Edwards who is performing at the fair, and Margy with Pat Gilbert, a Des Moines Register reporter who is covering the fair for the newspaper. Can both the young Frakes' romances extend beyond the length of the fair, especially considering their big-city vs. farm-life differences--Emily's which takes her across the country to perform, and Pat's which might earn him a more lucrative job as a columnist with a prestigious Chicago newspaper.—Huggo