Robert Forester, an embezzler, leaves his wife Marion and their three daughters to avoid imprisonment. Never revealing the reason behind his disappearance, Marion refuses to acknowledge that he is still alive and raises her family alone.

Emily, the eldest, marries a missionary pilot and must adjust to the difficulties of living and raising her daughter, Shannon, in a Kenyan village.

Deborah impulsively marries Johan Lootevik and soon finds herself helping to run a hunting lodge in Alaskan wilds.

Since childhood, Victoria has experienced bouts of depression. When a runaway teenager invades the quiet country lifestyle she and her husband have achieved, life becomes complicated.

With the death of their mother, the three women learn their father's secret and all find themselves on different paths, struggling with truth, and forgiveness.