It is 1920 in western Kansas and the house that David had promised Emily, his bride of fifteen months, is still unfinished due to a failed wheat crop the previous summer. Forced to move into the crowded, unfinished home of her extended family, Emily is miserable. Worst of all, she must face the fact that, due to his parents' influence, the once sweet and lovable David is becoming increasingly hostile toward her and their newborn daughter. David's family resents Emily because she is well-educated and a suffragist, but Emily is determined to make her marriage work, using her ingenuity to deal with their cruel comments and prejudice. When the school board arrives on her doorstep one morning to announce their immediate need for a teacher, Emily is torn. The family is povertystricken, but no one in David's family is offering to watch her baby. After she turns down the job to focus on her wifely duties, her father comes to visit. Appalled at the barren surroundings and her living situation, Emily's father thinks his little girl has wandered into the wrong place. Is he right or can Emily prove him wrong?