Ever so slowly Dakota Territory is being transformed from a vast prairie into rich farmlands. With the coming of the railroad, the small town of Blessing begins to prosper, and the Bjorklund family is reaping the promised harvest that had lured them from their beloved home in Norway.

The dream of their own farmstead and a good life in America had brought Roald and Ingeborg Bjorklund across the Atlantic to pioneer the virgin prairie of Dakota Territory. But Roald's tragic disappearance in a winter storm had turned Ingeborg's dreams into a living nightmare. Against nearly impossible circumstances and overwhelming grief, she struggles to keep the farm and her family together.

The 1880s story of a Norwegian family drawn to America by the promise of untold wealth. They go through the tenements of New York, make the dangerous journey overland to North Dakota and labor to carve out a homestead before the arrival of the dreaded winter. The Bjorklunds never dreamed they would face such hardship.