Beth and Papa have farmed and milked together in lower southwestern Michigan since Mama's death ten years before. Now, in the spring of 1868, Papa is crippled from an accident, and Beth is left to do all the work herself. Until, that is, Papa writes and asks Uncle Justus in New York City to send a young man of good character to learn how to farm. If he can do the job and likes Beth, and if she likes him, he can marry her and inherit the farm. Beth is infuriated by this arrangement and is determined to hate the man who comes. The day she meets her uncle's choice sets events in motion that will alter her life, and those of many others, forever.