Melanie and her three sisters Josi, Jessie and Sidney were at school when they learned of an approaching tornado. They rushed home but found no one there as their parents were at work. Taking shelter in the basement, their father arrived home just as the tornado hit, destroying the roof and taking the father. After the storm, firefighters rescued the girls and informed them their parents had died. The police then placed the orphaned sisters in a foster home, which Melanie initially found dirty and dusty but where they eventually adjusted.