At twenty-one, Clara's gambler father sells her off to settle his debts. She marries Nat Birch, a banker from Boston she has never laid eyes on, in a run-down church on the wrong side of town. She wears black.
Minutes after the vows, Nat tells her she’ll be spending their wedding night alone. He's leaving for the Oregon Trail, and she’s to be at the train station in four weeks. He won’t say why.
What's waiting at the station is his two children — filthy, starving, and dressed in rags — along with the vicious mother-in-law and thieving sister-in-law who’ve been in charge of them. Two thousand miles of trail lie ahead, and these women intend for Clara not to survive it.
They have no idea who they just put in a wagon.
