In 1888, a few months after barely surviving a deadly blizzard that has killed two of her brothers, fifteen-year-old Hannah goes to work at the home of a wealthy widow whose progressive social ideas scandalize the town of Prairie Hill, Nebraska.
In 1896, fourteen-year-old Megan joins her sister and family on their steamboat for the summer riding up the Mississippi River towards St. Paul, Minnesota, and through all of their adventures, Megan realizes what is her "true calling.".
Fourteen-year-old Hope visits her new foster mother's Nebraska farm and, through old letters, a diary, and stories, gets a vivid picture of the past in the voices of four girls her age who lived there in 1869, 1900, 1936, and 1960.
