Cecily Durham is a quiet farm girl who becomes caught in a spider's web of lies, betrayal and tragedy in Haven, Kansas in the year 1918. Her friend, Lottie Hess, can only escape the persecution of German American citizens during the Great War by choosing to commit suicide. When the love of Cecily's life, Joshua Bradley, is accused of being the father of Lottie Hess' unborn baby, Cecily tries to defend him. That act results in her banishment from her home and her family. She takes refuge in the home of her schoolmaster and his family, until she realizes that her love for him has become something that challenges her sense of propriety. Cast adrift again, she takes work as a cook for a harvest crew and endures a life of brutal labor. Trying to walk back to her home in little Haven, Cecily has nowhere to hide from the tornado that almost takes her life. She survives and is welcomed back home to recover. The pandemic of Spanish influenza invades Haven and the surrounding area. Cecily's schoolmaster dies, and in the moment of his death, Cecily sees him as a ghost come to protect her family from the pestilence. The Great War ends, and Joshua Bradley is home. But he has been maimed in the fighting and refuses to see anyone. On Christmas Eve, Cecily finds herself drawn to his home, wanting only to peek through a window and catch a glimpse of the man who she has adored since childhood. But her trespass results in their meeting and renewing their vows of love for one another. This love is doomed, however, when Joshua is sent away to a home for disabled soldiers. They meet again, in the year 1925. Cecily is happy in her occupation as a schoolteacher and Joshua has settled into a life of wealth and social prominence in Kansas City. He returns to Haven one last time and offers Cecily her chance to be with him. She refuses, knowing she is too poor and obscure to have a place in his life any longer. Her schoolmaster's adopted brother, a man come West on the orphan train, becomes enamored of her. She comes to believe that marrying him would bring her happiness, at last. But when she discovers he is still seeing an old love, her heartbreak takes her to Kansas City. She finds Joshua, who is now married to someone else. But he is terribly unhappy and wants to be with Cecily. It is a mistake that results in tragedy for him and release from the enslavement of her doomed love for him for Cecily.