In the time when women often died in childbirth and men remarried to have someone care for the house and children, new mothers sometimes cut off relationship with the maternal grandparents. Ellie is a strong young woman faced with circumstances that are not her choice. When Ellies older sister Regina dies at the birth of her third child, her parents request that Ellie break off her engagement to the man she loves and marry their son-in-law, John, so the children will stay in the family.