Bella is forced, by her illegitimate half brother Henry, to marry the abusive Edward who is emigrating to the new settlement in Virginia. After a brutal wedding night she escapes, but Henry finds her and forces her to sail on the next ship. While caring for her sick baby brother Toby and his nurse Alice, she is helped by Adam, a wealthy settler already established on a James River plantation, and they fall in love. In Jamestown, however, Edward, by threatening Toby, forces Bella to go with him to his own recently acquired plantation. Can she ever escape from his cruel domination?