Clara and Merritt

Seattle-born Clara Hamilton, daughter of a fervent member of the International Longshoremen and Warehousemen Union who participated in the strike, meets Merritt Driscoll, a seaman stationed at Sand Point, who takes a job after World War II with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and becomes close to union boss Dave Beck, who strongly opposed the 1934 strike. As the long strike increases in intensity and violence their love is interrupted from 1943 through 1948, as Clara develops as an artist while shedding her mother's Christian Science beliefs and Merritt studies part-time at the University of Washington while experiencing blackmail over a drunken encounter during his Navy days.