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...