Betrothed as a young girl, Rachel Solomon faces a loveless union to an older man as a promise to her ailing father. Her young math teacher befriends her in her senior year of high school, and Rachel gradually divulges her growing fears. Before the year is finished, David Christianson can no longer deny his love, and pledges to rescue Rachel from the arranged marriage. They are married in the judge's chambers in downtown Boston at the end of the school year. But their honeymoon is short-lived. When Rachel's father dies of heart failure, her former fiancé and her scheming Aunt Hazel team up and successfully separate the newlyweds. Baffled and angry, David finishes grad school and takes a teaching assignment in the Midwest. Disillusioned, Rachel moves in with her Aunt Ruth and Uncle Saul in the Midwest. Mere miles apart for years without realizing it, they are finally reunited in answer to their son's timely prayer the day Rachel registers him in his father's school.