In 1889, women were chattel, prized solely for their physical attributes, the contents of their dowries, their skills at the helm of the family's wood-burning cookstove, their capacity to conceive endlessly and their willingness to endure marriage and miscarriage in silence. Women could not vote or smoke in public. Motherhood was sanctified and only the whores ventured out unescorted after dark, dyed their hair and wore make-up. Blissfully young and naive, Emma Miller nearly lost herself in Edward Richardson's seductive blue eyes until the reality of her husband's alcoholic rampages began to erode her cherished dream of marriage. Like the practiced coward that he was, Edward abandoned his wife and children in the dead of night, taking with him their horse and their cookie jar savings. Emma had willed herself to survive Edward's beatings but could she survive life as a single parent with three children? At a time when women were to be seen but never heard, Emma marched boldly into the dawn of a new era for women. Emma defied polite society by embarking upon a career, taking a lover and refusing to bend in the face of personal and professional conflict.