Life is hard for Maggie, an Irish emigrant who must make a new life for herself when the famine forces her to leave her country. Bound into a loveless marriage, and viewed with suspicion by people who do not want the immigrants to take their jobs, Maggie must play the dutiful wife and daughter-in-law until fate can play its part. Vivienne Dockerty has written a gripping historical novel, about Irish Emigration and the determination of one woman to build a better life, made all the more fascinating by the historical fact that encompasses the story being told.