When the steamer Continental sails into Puget Sound in the spring of 1866, it carries a precious cargo: mail-order brides whove pledged their futures to men theyd never met. Among them is Maddy Douglas, a beautiful, headstrong, rebellious fifteen year old determined to leave her painful memories behind and build a family and a fortune in an untamed wilderness. So begins the Blanchard dynasty, and an obsession shared by three generations of Blanchard women an obsession with the Seattle land known as Calebs Bluff that for the next century will divide wife from husband, mother from daughter, and brother from brother.Maddy marries Abel, the Blanchard shes pledged to. But she gives her heart to Caleb, his brother, whose wild romantic soul speaks to her own. Catherine shares her mothers fierce love for the Blanchard land. But to build an empire and safeguard Calebs Bluff, she sacrifices her marriage, denies her true love, and alienates her only daughter.Natalie runs away from Seattle to escape the Blanchards and find her own destiny as a Pulitzer Prize winning photojournalist. With it comes a last chance at love. But love is not enough, and destiny awaits her in the place she fled, on the Bluff that calls her home.