Ever since she was a child, Letty Leighton has imagined a place where all people could provice for their own needs, where poverty and vice would be a thing of the past. Fueled by a half-remembered dream and the writings of Charles dickens, all Letty needs to finally build her utopian society is access to her vast inheritance— and for that she needs a husband. ; Fate brings her to Patrick Marlowe, a penniless explorer with dreams to return to Africa. Both young dreamers have passions of their own, and a marriage of convenience seems to provide them both with the means to achieve their goals. But even as New Hope appears to be a success, not everything in Letty's utopia— or her marriage— turns out as planned.