Cincinnati, 1884. At a young age, Rachel Haufmann, the headstrong daughter of a riverboat magnate, learns the hard way that life isn't fair, particularly if you're born female. Her father exiles the man she loves. She comes to resent the boundaries that society places on her gender. Then a charismatic riverboat pilot teaches her the unwelcome lesson that, as a woman of means, she is little more than prey to ambitious men. Rachel flees to England with no intention of ever coming back. But five years later, when her father is murdered, the embittered Rachel returns to Cincinnati to confront those she left behind and to wrestle with the emotionally scarred woman she has become.