The Lubbock clan make it to Eureka, California, where Graham's accepting a coaching job at St Auggie's Academy — but the family's in for some surprises. First, the Coach learns that the university is an all-boys school which his daughters will be attending. Then they arrive at their new run-down home, and find it "looks like something out of Nightmare on Elm Street." But the biggest surprise is that Graham only got the job because his former student, Duane Johnson, works on the faculty, and has been corresponding with Elizabeth.

The girls are each to get jobs to help bring in some extra cash. Connie ends up in a meat packing plant; Marie becomes a volenteer; Cindy gets exploited for her beauty at a job as a receptionist at a health club; and Wendy is too distracted by shopping to look for work.

Elizabeth becomes convinced that she was having a conversation with God, though no one believes her. That is, until a tree crashes through a bedroom window, where the kids would have been, had she not forced them to start praying. . .