When Iona reaches seventeen, she plumbs the depths of despair when her unloving mother arranges her marriage to an abusive drunkard 20 years her senior. But after tragedy and near-fatal illness, she starts a new life close to her beloved river which gives her the strength she needs to deal with life's challenges. Even when events push her to the very edge of sanity, the river is there to help her find the way back to the man she loves.