He receives a letter from a Sarah Wheaton of Maine who says she will visit the family for a month to see how things work out: 'I will come by train. Anna looks forward to a summer wedding and imagines all the days and years ahead with her family.Set in the early 1900s, this play brings to life the charming, heartwarming story of a Kansas farmer, Jacob Witting, a widower with two children-Anna and Caleb, who places an ad in the newspapers seeking a wife. She returns with colored pencils, so she can bring the colors of the sea to the new place she has decided to call home. The day she goes to town, they hide their tears and spend anxious hours waiting for her. They worry she’s going into town alone to buy a return ticket to Maine. Papa teaches Sarah to drive, but the children are afraid. She helps Papa fix the roof just before a big storm that drives the family and animals into the barn overnight. Sarah asks to learn how to ride a horse and drive a buggy. The neighbor brings flowers to plant, and Papa gets Sarah some chickens. The neighbor understands, but she reminds Sarah there is always something to miss, no matter where you are.

The kids also overhear Sarah talking with a neighbor about missing home. She draws sketches of the farm, but something seems to be missing from them. They know she misses the sea and her family. The children grow to adore Sarah, but they watch her closely for signs she won’t stay. Sarah and the children exchange questions about their experiences as Sarah gets a taste of pioneer life. They slide down a hay dune that mirrors the sand dunes she loved in her childhood. But they soon discover she is cheerful, spirited and adventurous, too. She is plain and tall, as she indicated in her letters. She brings her cat, Seal, and gifts of seashells. In the spring, Sarah comes for a month’s visit. The kids are especially pleased to hear she sings the way their mother did. Papa and the children begin corresponding with Sarah. She says she has always loved living by the sea but might consider a change now that the brother she lives with is getting married.

Papa shares Sarah’s first letter with the intrigued children. A woman named Sarah Wheaton from Maine sees and answers his ad for a mail-order bride. Some years have passed, but Papa still longs for help, companionship and a mother for his children. Their mother died the day after Caleb was born. Anna Witting and her younger brother, Caleb, live on a midwestern homestead with their papa, Jacob.

Sarah plain and tall soundtrack