Despite being neighbors, Irish immigrant Maggie Malone and Elizabeth Blair, the mistress of her brother's Missouri plantation, have led such different lives that they barely know one another --- until war brings them together, and each woman discovers that both friendship and love can come from the unlikeliest of places.

Laura Rose White's late father taught her everything he knew about piloting a Missouri River steamboat. When tragedy strikes, Laura must make the two-month journey from St. Louis to Fort Benton and back in order to save her family's legacy, her home, and the only life she's ever known. The only way for her to overcome the nearly insurmountable odds is with the help of her brother's disreputable friend Finn MacKnight, a skilled pilot with a terrible reputation.