Following the story of a woman with dwarfism, Stones From the River takes place during the period just after World War I leading up to just after World War II. This woman is the protagonist Trudi Montag, who grows up in a completely normal, small German town.
Trudi's mother dies when she is just four years old, so the only memories she has of her are those of hate - initially, Trudi's mother looked down on Trudi because of her physical characteristics. Her father, on the other hand, is a library-owner that brings in the income for the family.
As Trudi gets older, she begins to punish herself for her own characteristics, because she thinks her mother died because of the "mental-illness" that her dwarfism made her get. However, Trudi fails to realize that her mother was having an affair while Trudi's father was fighting in the war, causing her to feel extreme guilt.
During interactions with other members of the community, people call Trudi a dwarf, which is considered rude. She, as a tween, internally punishes herself, and goes through frugal processes to make herself taller, which ultimately fail.
When she is fourteen years old, Trudi get the fairy tale-like power of being able to read peoples innermost feelings. She becomes the holder of the townspeople's deepest secrets, which they wish to withhold from everyone else except her.
Then, Germany falls into the wrath of World War II. Everyone in the village is filled with hatred towards the outside world, with really no reason at all. Trudi, seeing this hatred, realizes it is a bad motivator to get things done. Trudi and her father resist the Nazi's as much as necessary, which isn't hard because they are German.
When the war ends, soldiers come back to the town and realize that they have taken the lives of many innocent people. Trudi, meanwhile, is collecting all of their stories, as well as the stories from her father's library after he dies later in the book. With all of this knowledge of those around her, she contemplates about how she had a positive influence on the village by letting people use her as an outlet for their secrets and hatred, but how this is still a horrible thing.
