She longed for love and adventure. She found so much more. Larkspur Linwood yearns for a more exciting future than life as a small-town Arkansas schoolmarm. Mistaking her favorite college professor's interest for romantic love, she leaps at the chance to serve with him at a missionary school in Kenya. But his ultimate betrayal shatters her heart, and she slinks home in shame. Anson Schafer, director of the Kenyan school, is losing his sight to an eye infection and must return to the States. Finding new purpose in the founding of schools and relief efforts for those struggling through the Depression, he visits Lark's college to recruit teachers. Though she's reluctant to risk another failed venture, this could be her chance to make a difference.

As Lark and Anson work side by side to bring hope and education to impoverished children, her respect for him deepens into something much, much more. But can their dreams withstand the trials and struggles of the prejudicial South?.