Spoiled and pampered, Amanda was the daughter of a Georgian plantation owner. Overly confident and proud, she is convinced all good things in life are hers simply for the taking. But she is ill-prepared for marriage to an abolitionist physician from the North. Then her fairytale concepts run headlong into reality when she encounters pirates, vicious storms at sea, and riverboat gamblers. Repulsed by her husband's vocation, she struggles to fit into his world. Totally untrained and unknowledgeable about anything and everything related to housekeeping, gardening, and such duties, she must depend on Grant's aunt to teach her the daily and seasonal routines of farm life.

Finally content and adjusted to motherhood, life in the Missouri community, and the demands of the medical practice, she is then driven to distraction when it becomes apparent that her husband is keeping secrets. Learning the truth is nearly the undoing for them both.