In 1820, Clarissa Johnson joins a group of young missionaries leaving New England and traveling by river to the Osage lands. Together they face disease and danger that tests their courage and fortitude along the months' long journey into the untamed American West. Arriving in the Indian Country, the young missionaries struggle to build a mission and school on the prairie and work to bring education and the gospel to the Osages and Cherokees. Caught in the middle of a feud between tribal leaders, the missionaries must work to build trust with their Indian neighbors and members of the nearby fur trading community. Slowly their school grows and so does their relationships of friendship, Christian fellowship and love. But Clarissa must deal with a deeply wounded heart and the betrayal that caused her to flee her hometown to teach at the mission school. Will she ever learn to trust again? Will love find her in this untamed land?