When Margaret Campbell left her home, a working ranch in the Canada prairies, for the East coast and college, she never meant to come back. In the aftermath of a tragic accident that claimed the lives of her aunt and uncle, however, Margaret is called home to help. There she must assume a much less glamorous role as chef, gardener, and mother figure for her orphaned cousins.

But when a strange sickness strikes the cattle and blights the crops, Margaret's family is threatened with the loss of the ranch they've worked so hard to maintain. While the Campbells and the surrounding community wait, Margaret's childhood friend Christopher, now a microbiologist, rushes to find the cause of the town's agricultural problems. Christopher's tribe believes that they have already located the problem: the community has failed to tend to the spiritual needs of the land.

As the town suffers under a bitter winter, Margaret finds herself divided between loyalty to home and family and the career she's still struggling to build.