"I sold my daughter for rum. God have mercy on us both." Sixteen-year-old Mary Anne Ferguson is traded to scarred ex-soldier Henry Dowling in a drunken deal that shatters her faith in family. Transported and pardoned, Henry longs for a clean slate and believes the gentle girl can anchor his restless heart. Together they carve fence posts, battle drought, and learn the dangerous cost of Robert Ferguson's growing addiction. When bush gossip brands Mary Anne a convict's bride and Robert's final bargain threatens to ruin them all, husband and wife must decide whether hard-won tenderness can survive betrayal. In a land where grace is as rare as rain, love must root itself in rock or perish.