Set in the late 1800's, Through the Dust is the story of a courageous woman's journey from England to escape an impending marriage that would see her a virtual prisoner to her husband. It is the height of the gold and diamond rushes of Southern Africa. Elizabeth Holbrook and Stephen Lockbourne are childhood friends until the day his mother dies and his largely-absent father sends him away to a grim boarding school for boys. It is sixteen years before Elizabeth and Stephen are reunited followed by a courtship and engagement to marry. With horror, Elizabeth discovers that her childhood friend is gone, replaced by a brutal and inexorable man. In order to escape the engagement, Elizabeth steals away in the night to board a steamer for Southern Africa. By the time Elizabeth arrives in Cape Town, Stephen is on her trail. Stephen quickly realizes that there are business opportunities for him in this new and largely unknown land and sets about establishing himself among the major magnates of the diamond and gold mining world, enabling him to step into plans to extend the British Empire north of the Transvaal. While Stephen sees to his new business interests in the north, his henchmen begin to close in on Elizabeth in the south. Will she escape them? Or will she become the trophy wife of a cruel and uncompromising man?