As becomes a dutiful wife, Eliza Barry followed her husband to the Oregon Territory in 1844. To Jim Barry, Oregon was his opportunity to improve upon his station in life. He was weary of farming. But to Eliza it was leaving a gentle life in Indiana, where she had been content to live and raise her children.
The journey to the Willamette Valley is briefly touched upon in flashback, as is the establishment of their land claim. The story begins with Jim following his rainbow on to the California Gold rush, and leaving his family to fend for themselves.
Eliza and her two children, a boy Courtney, aged 12 years, and Mary aged 10, find themselves caught up in a struggle to provide food for their table. They have many adventures including a robber, attack by she-bear, run-in with Indians intent upon acquiring a pony, weather problems, a broken leg. They witness the hanging of the Indians deemed responsible for the Whitman Massacre. Eliza must turn away a suitor.
The story takes place in an historically correct setting, with the names of neighbors, suitor and acquaintances found in the history books. It encompasses inaugurations, politics and the economic growth of the territory, together with veiled accusations of the inequality afforded women of that era.
The resolution to the problem of what has happened to Mr. Barry, and if he will return is left until the last pages.
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