Hardworking London governess Helen Davenport longs for a family of her own but knows the prospect of finding a suitable husband grows dimmer each year. Then she spots an advertisement seeking wives for the churchgoing bachelors of colonial New Zealand and begins an affectionate correspondence with a gentleman farmer. Meanwhile, not far away in Wales, society life bores Gwyneira Silkham, beautiful, daring daughter of a wealthy sheep breeder. She finds an unexpected escape when her father loses a blackjack hand to a mysterious New Zealand baron and Gwyns hand in marriage goes to the barons son. The women cross paths on the ship to Christchurch Helen traveling steerage, Gwyn first class and form an unlikely friendship, one theyll rely on when the husbands awaiting them turn out very different than theyd imagined. This nineteenth-century saga of two unforgettable young women navigating a new world and finding friendship, romance, and adventure at every turn is as lush and sweeping as the hills of New Zealand themselves.