Teenagers Bradley Featherstone and Ida Mae McLeod are in love… or so it seems. Ida's father, Angus, has vetoed the marriage until his daughter is older.

Bradley faces the draft for the Civil War when his father Henry decides to take Homestead Act land in Oregon. They leave Ohio by canal boat and embark upon a long journey across the country by river and by land—without Ida Mae.

Rufus Lindsay is also interested in Ida Mae but waits until Bradley is out of the picture to pop the question. But Rufus has a second interest. So does his mother. Both involve Albert Bartlett, the banker.

Sarah Pearson, the "Whispering Wind of Massillon" is busy collecting stories and seeing that the appropriate people are hearing them. But she doesn't know that someone on the boat has offered to marry Bradley. Or that Bradley has been shanghaied into the Union Army. Or that the Featherstone family has missed the boat that will take them west to the departure point of the wagon train.

Both experience some extraordinary things before they meet again… and when they meet…. Well, let's just say it doesn't quite happen the way you'd expect.

This is a mid-19th century story of love denied, ambition, deception, war, intrigue, accomplishment, and a twist you didn't see coming.