In New Zealand in the heady gold rush days of the 1860s, men went missing and were never found. Some drowned, some starved, some simply disappeared never to be seen again. Mary Healey finds herself alone in a new country with six children. After trekking across the province searching for her missing husband Jim, she finally gives up looking for him and discovers a new place to call home. She purchases the Welcome Home Hotel, and posing as a respectable widow, runs a successful establishment with the aid of her three daughters, Annie, Meg, and Kitty. But the past refuses to remain buried and...