The daughter of an Arizona rancher, Eden Smith has been sent to Radcliffe College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, to get an education. But Eden has spent her childhood dressing as and working with the boys and young men on her father's ranch. Life in a women's college in 1900 presents challenges to a girl who thinks of herself as something of a boy and despises wearing skirts. Love makes it all bearable for a time, until a passion for painting takes Eden to Paris. There she almost grasps freedoms she never knew possible, only to have her most sacred commitments threatened by a world yet unready for her genius.