Rural Sweden was a beautiful place in 1889 when Edvard and Inga came of age and planned to get married. The countryside around their farm town of Kisa was breathtaking and serene. Their lives were filled with customs and traditions, folklore and mythology, common wisdom and an expectation of a birthright.
They didn't expect a lot - just the same lives their families had lived for generations. But life has changed. The population has soared. The industrial revolution has altered the social order. Peasant farmers are at the bottom of the economic ladder and most are dirt poor.
Edvard and Inga find their options are very bleak. To begin their life together they will have to do something drastic - something they would never have considered. Reluctantly, they join the waves of Swedes emigrating to America. But the "promised land" doesn't fulfill all of its promises. Everything that could go wrong for the young couple does go wrong.