The reminiscences of a New York lawyer, Jim Burden, about his boyhood in Nebraska, particularly a young Bohemian girl named Antonia Shimerda, are set against the backdrop of the American assimilation of the immigrant.

The secret they've kept can either bring them together or tear them apart. Youngest sibling and only sister, Kim Luchetti comes home to the Illinois family farm after her father's heart attack. Eight years ago she vowed never to come back, believing only distance would allow her to forget the tragedy that broke her heart. Returning means she must face everyone's questions, including those of her first love, Brian Riley, the only one who knows her...

In 1898, after her inattentive and unreliable husband's tragic death, artist Ida Pease must sift through the remnants of his life and work, separating the truth from lies and what matters from what doesn't.

Living an unfulfilling existence at the side of a tragic husband, shy orphan Ellie Dillahan begins an affair that forces her to choose between an uncertain future with the man she loves and the desolate life she has built for herself.