The main character in this story of a young woman's ambition to own and cultivate a large farm is Kate Bates, another Gene Stratton-Porter unsung hero. As the youngest child, and female, in a large properous farm family, she has been designated as her mother's helper in old age. Kate finds this unfair since all of her brothers have been given land and the older sisters sent to teaching training. With the help of a nephew and sister-in-law, she defies her parents, becomes a teacher, and leaves home. After rejecting the easy path to her dream of owning her own farm, she suffers through a bad marriage but ultimately acquires her land and achieves happiness.