Seventeen-year-old Susanna must assume the motherly duties of caring for her two younger siblings. With her family counting on her, the heroine attempts to make a new life centered around a sodhouse on the unsettled Kansas prairie. Susanna is befriended by an old mountain man, who helps her through the hardship and loneliness of existence on the plains. She soon falls in love with the schoolmaster, whose past is dark, mysterious, and dangerous, and with whom she finds satisfaction and fulfillment. This novel will appeal to young readers and adults alike.