ANNA EBBESSEN grew up in a soddy her father homesteaded after the 1893 Cherokee Strip land-run. At barely seventeen, her mother insists that she leave home to seek a better life. Anna feels guilty about leaving her mother with her abusive, drunken father, but when given the opportunity to work as a hired girl for the Muellers, she decides to go even though it is many miles from her home. The Muellers' modern farm has many conveniences and their lifestyle is vastly different from what Anna has experienced. In their home for the first time she hears the Bible read, she learns about salvation and what a happy family should be. While living there she meets JOHN DAVIS, an "entirely satisfactory" man, only to learn that her mother has been put in a mental hospital, and she is expected to return home as her father's caregiver. She is faced with a choice, accept her responsibility and face her father's abuse and hostility, or stay and have a chance to fulfill her dreams.