Released in the heart of the Great Depression, the story takes the McClures to the mill town of Leesville, North Carolina, after their land was taken by a logging corporation.
Soon after their optimistic arrival induced by economic conditions, they find the worst is yet to come as they endure a new, challenging life of being a part of the exploited working class under mill management.
Inspired by her own experience in Gastonia, North Carolina, during the textile strike, Lumpkin's writing style in the radical literary tradition is explored in several political themes encompassing the exhausting pursuit of unionization.
The exploitation of mill workers challenges the formerly matriarchal, agrarian family structure of the McClures as they endure a starving winter, an arrest and murder, All the while, mothers and children are employed in long hours of harsh working conditions.
Lumpkin's central theme conveyed through the quest for unionized life is the plight of working-class women during the Great Depression.
There is no joy in having children at this time, and reproductive obligations leave the mothers with no choice but to solely provide, as their productive capacities place them in a limited socioeconomic role.
Lumpkin's progressive voice is explored most through Bonnie, who represents solidarity against mill management, while inspiring others through nobility and perseverance.
When Bonnie joins the strike, she exposes the importance of the woman's role and takes a radical step towards her goal of unifying the working class, regardless of ethnic background or race, as demonstrated by her organization of African American workers.
Her attempts to blend class separation and to expose the working woman emulates Lumpkin's political themes, portrayed throughout the defeating journey of the McClure's search for security.
The book won the Maxim Gorky Prize for Literature from Moscow in 1932:Art, in Grace Lumpkin's case, took the form of a novel on which she had been working for some time, and which eventually appeared as To Make My Bread.
It was awarded Moscow's Maxim Gorki prize for literature, was turned into a play and, some years later, had a successful run at the Civic Repertory's old theater on 14th Street.