Seventeen-year-old Flora is in love with William but her controlling father intends to force her into a marriage with William's older brother Eli, who inherited the family farm. Flora rebels and convinces William to leave their conservative rural community and build a life of their choosing. They homestead in Kansas and have a child, but conflicts begin to pull them apart after realizing they want very different things out of life. Flora yearns for stability, friendship, and community life, while William prefers independence, autonomy, and the solitude of prairie life far from social pressures. When acts of violence force them to flee for their lives, they return to Indiana leaving everything behind. If that wasn't bad enough, a disaster strikes on their journey home which threatens to upend their marriage and send them in very different directions. Flora faces increasing interference in her relationship with William from her father and Eli upon returning home. As she works to rebuild her life, with or without William, she is unsure of who to trust and what road to take.