Lured by the prospect of free land, a group of New Englanders emigrate to Nova Scotia in the spring of 1760 to claim land seized from the Acadians by the British. Weary of poverty and religious oppression, Connecticut farmer Zadoc Bennet hopes to build a peaceful new life there for his family.
But there is no sanctuary from war and revolution, and private tragedy stalks the family. On their first day ashore, one of their sons vanishes. Another son later succumbs to religious fanaticism and pays for his obsession with his life. Mercy, their mother, holds a secret fear close to her heart. Is she somehow at fault?
Life in Nova Scotia was to be a new beginning for the family, but the past cannot be undone. Their fates are inextricably entwined with that of Catherine Dupuis, an exiled Acadian woman with her own dark grief. She has suffered hatred, brutality and degradation, but she is determined to redeem what she has lost. Separated from her brother in the expulsion of the Acadians, she will stop at nothing to find him.
In a story set against the backdrop of pre-revolutionary North America, these humble people struggle to survive and prosper in a harsh new land.