When Sarah Madigan lost her three children to diphtheria, she also lost her hair and was shunned and thought to be crazy, a thought not far from her own assessment or her husband's. Broken in spirit and pregnant with her fourth child, she stole a Diary in which she found some release for her sorrow and pain. When the baby came, she was ready to begin again until her husband, bedridden after being trampled by his horse, secretly sent their fourth child away, pushing her to the edge of insanity and leaving her in charge of their farm with only an old ex-slave to help her until, on a trip to town, she hires a stranger with a mysterious past. It is April 1910. Sarah Madigan's husband of ten years controls everything in her life. Without her baby son, she is desperate and tormented. The only thing keeping her going is her determination to do whatever she has to do to prove to her husband that she is capable and worthy so he will allow their child to come back home.