Since Bridget Mitchell was two, it was just her and her father. As her father nears the end of his life, she has no idea what she will do after his death. All that she knows for certain is that she cannot live in the house she's always been in.

When Elizabeth Tandy comes into the post office where Bridget works, she tells her to come see her because she has a letter she believes was written just for Bridget—a letter to become a mail-order bride.

Felix Potter is obsessed with getting married. He sends off for a mail-order bride, fully expecting the woman to be ugly as a toad when she arrives. Instead, the woman who comes all the way across the country to marry him is quite beautiful.

Both of them are full of worries that the other person won't find them worthy of staying beside. When tragedy strikes, they have to decide whether they care for one another enough to keep going, or if they should just give up and go their separate ways.