Get the Summary of Betty Smith's A Tree Grows in Brooklyn in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Betty Smith's "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" follows Francie Nolan's life in early 20th-century Brooklyn. Francie's childhood is marked by poverty, but she finds solace in reading and her vivid imagination. Her father, Johnny, is a singing waiter with a drinking problem, and her mother, Katie, is a janitress who instills the importance of education in her children...