In the shadows of the English Plague of 1625, Jonathan Fairbanks finds himself snubbed in his father's will and thrust into the chaos of King Charles's persecution of Puritans. Risking everything, he sails with his young family over treacherous seas to the uncertainty of the wilderness founded as the Massachusetts Bay Colony. Jonathan struggles to carve a place for his family in the new town of Dedham as his wife, Grace, strives to overcome her doubts and hardships while sustaining their family. Just when Jonathan sees security for the family, his son Jonas asserts his own ambitions, contrary to his father's, and is sent away to a newer frontier. There Jonas finds a way to marry for love. The Fairbanks were early settlers in the Massachusetts Bay Colony and built the oldest frame house still standing in North America in Dedham, MA. Jonas worked at the first successful ironworks in the colonies, Hammersmith, now a National Park Service location called Saugus Iron Works.