In 1890, Emily Ayers, an illiterate eighteen-year-old, is living on the edge of the Pine Barrens in Southern New Jersey. She goes to a nearby town to care for the sick wife and three children of the Reverend Josiah Fairchild, a distant relative. When his wife Retty dies, the Reverend marries Emily. As the wife of a prominent minister, Emily is faced with many challenges: coping with the disapproval of some of the church congregation; learning to be a wife and a stepmother to rebellious Jack and shy Noah; and finding a way to learn to read. She is shamed by her father's outrageous behavior that includes getting drunk and causing a disastrous fire, and worried about her mother alone back on the farm. With her friend Sarah she joins the exciting new Suffragist movement, and when Sarah's brother Charles moves back to town, Emily's life takes on a new direction.