Everett Braun is a third generation farmer with a smallholding in the beautiful mountains of the New York Catskills. He has a notion that his struggling farm might thrive if only he had a wife, a proper woman, to cook and clean and tend the garden. He puts pen to paper and writes an advertisement that clearly states his requirements. Deidre Wilkinson is an orphan, raised by oppressive relatives who keep her, and her inherited dowry, under close supervision. She has been taught to behave appropriately and to know her place as a woman. But beneath her docile exterior, Deidre is a spirited artist and yearns to be free. When she finds Everett's post she decides to escape. She knows how to behave properly and can meet the needs of Mr. Braun. When Deidre steps from the train in Rainsville, New York, her life and the life of Everett Braun, take a direction neither of them anticipated. In the tradition of Stavewood, Nanette Kinslow's three part series, Whetstone, takes a mail-order-bride and the man who has sent for her, on a rich journey to another place and time.