Kit Markham, born into an affluent family in Melbourne in 1840, decides to leave her family and all she holds dear in order to put distance between herself and Jack. Strong enough to break away from him, her childhood sweetheart and recently discovered half-brother, she takes a fast clipper to England.
Kit knows she must stay away until such time as she can accept Jack only as a brother and is prepared to do this for as long as it takes. In London she answers a call for help, volunteering to work on a hospital ship bringing back the wounded from the Crimean War. Confronting the harsh realities of life and the carnage of war for the first time, she finds out what hard work is all about and builds both resilience and compassion. Kit begins a brief liaison with an injured Canadian soldier, John, and sees that it is possible to love more than one man at once.
She believes she can now leave her feelings for Jack locked away in her heart and create a new life for herself without him. But John dies of his wounds leaving her bereft once more. Still determined to achieve and stand alone, and still not trusting herself to return home, she sets the goal of training to become a doctor. The only place where this is possible is America so she travels there. Despite setbacks and delays she achieves her goal but then finds she must strive to gain a foothold in this male-dominated profession. Her success is limited.
She falls in love and marries her supervising doctor, Ned, and they have a child but the life they envisaged is shattered by the outbreak of Civil War. Despite his protestations, she leaves her child and travels to the battlefield of Antietam to work alongside him.
The Union Army refuses to recognise her services as a doctor but she obstinately remains working with Ned. The need is great and doctors few. Later, volunteering to man a dressing station at Fredericksburg, Kit is captured by rebel soldiers and becomes a prisoner-of-war. Ned goes after her and is also captured. Enduring further hardship in Virginia, Ned falls ill and dies while Kit is forced to work as a nurse at Chimborazo Hospital.
Eventually returning to the Union through a prisoner exchange program, she is finally recognised as an assistant surgeon and is sent to Gettysburg. Jack finds her there.
Despite all that has happened and her efforts to be apart from him, he persists in his pursuit of her, willing to cast aside everything to be with her, re-entering her life and her heart.
Alone and vulnerable Kit is torn between the life she has created and the life he is offering. She ultimately must decide what path will make her truly happy.
