Joy in the Morning

In 1927, young second-generation Irish-American couple Carl Brown and Annie McGairy decide to get married despite things working against them. Those issues are many. Annie comes from a poor, uneducated, broken family; her stepfather abuses her and is jealous of Carl, which in turn makes her mother throw her out. That abuse coupled with her otherwise sexual inexperience taints the way she views human interaction. His parents, who come from a working class background themselves, wanted Carl to marry into a respectable family. Because of Carl's promising future, they view Annie purely as a gold digger. The newlyweds have no money since Carl spends all he has on his law schooling, which still is paid for primarily by his parents and school loans. That schooling, and the job he gets as college grounds caretaker which comes with a small cottage for them to live in on campus, preoccupies his time. As their marriage progresses, there are further pressures. She becomes jealous of his past relationship with a co-ed, and with his college life in general which is foreign to her. Her association and friendship with Anthony Byrd, a homosexual florist, and with Bev Karter, a single mother who is in an extramarital relationship with Stan Pulaski, an older, married and generous man, fuels gossip which negatively affects Carl's view of her on-campus life. The one bright spot seems to be Annie unofficially auditing an English class, which feeds her hunger for knowledge. Can their marriage withstand these and other pressures that come with marriage?