(Spoiler version of storyline) In 1692 North Hinkapee, Massachusetts Bay Colony, where Thompson Downing established an uneasy peace between the Sagawanees and the White People decades before, 17yo Faythe Emily Wentworth enjoys growing up as a farmer’s daughter. Then 18yo Matt and Pat Downing rape her 12yo sister Chloe. Martha Downing schemes to protect her sons, but Robert Wentworth will not take the bribe, so Martha raises the stakes with the help of Minister William Brown.

(Other story elements are laid down in flashbacks to Sheriff Jones’s origins as a fighter called to the founding of North Hinkapee; the battle when young Katakuk lost his father, Chief Passatan, and his lover, Nununyi; Martha Downing’s hardscrabble origins; and the poverty of the Wentworths.)