Prudence Hinckley has methodically planned her future. The daughter of a retired China Trade sea captain she lives a sheltered life of comfort and refinement on Cape Cod. Educated in the best schools for young women, betrothed to a ship’s officer, Pru is destined to be the lady of a great house. But as generations of the Hinckleys have learned, the sea is a fickle mistress. Voyagers must learn to ride the waves or drown. Pru’s future will be in a sea of brown grassland known as the Great American Desert, the Dakota Territory of 1880. Her circumstances lead her to test her Yankee perseverance to earn the freedom offered an unmarried woman in the untamed West.