In early June 1860, Abigail enjoyed a peaceful home life in Camanche, Iowa, and, Joseph Sund had recently proposed marriage. That changes June 3rd when a tornado rips through town, killing her parents. At the mass funeral for those who perished in the storm, she learns Marty Cranson, with whom Abigail witnessed Joseph having a heated argument, died, but at the hands of a person rather than the tornado. In addition to being faced with raising her young siblings, Joseph has disappeared and a stranger, Marshall Stevenson, appears, offering to help Abigail repair the families' home and help with the crops. Abigail, while developing romantic feelings for Marshall, tolerating the scorn of town woman, and working as a seamstress and storekeeper to support her siblings, becomes obsessed with finding out who killed Marty, hoping that and not that he no longer loved her, was the reason Joseph left.