Mariah, a widow struggling to raise her three children on a small farm in Midwestern Canada in the '30s, is determined to succeed alone. She works hard, along with her two young sons, Jonathan and Seth. Nellie Lynn, her little girl, also helps out when she's not busy dressing the family hound dog in doll clothes. Each night, Mariah talks to her dead husband's picture, and tells him no one can ever take his place. No one, that is, until a weary traveller shows up at her gate for a cool drink, and makes the devastating mistake of letting his shirt fall open...