Utah Territory, winter of 1888. Deborah Tyler waits for her husband, Samuel, who is weeks overdue from his travels as a wheelwright. Junction is a tiny town of seven Mormon families scattered along the floor of a canyon, and Deborah earns her living by tending orchards and making work gloves. Isolated by the red-rock cliffs that surround the town, the townspeople are regarded with suspicion by the Mormon faithful who question the depth of their belief....

Seventeen-year-old Pattyn, the eldest daughter in a large Mormon family, is sent to her aunt's Nevada ranch for the summer, where she temporarily escapes her alcoholic, abusive father and finds love and acceptance, only to lose everything when she returns home.