Saul falls passionately in love with a Cherokee girl named Vine, but after they marry and Saul takes a job as a logger that requires him to be away from home, his brother Aaron wants to take his place. When Vine declines his attentions, Aaron tries to rape her, and she kills him in self-defense, a secret act that will have consequences far beyond her expectations. The novel is set during the World War I era in the mountains of Kentucky.