It's October of 1940, and Nancy Cavanaugh is a happily married woman with three young children and one on the way.
The only serious rift between her and her husband, Connor, is a debt-ridden farm in Ireland that Connor inherited from his father. He has dreams of one day going back to Ireland to work the farm and raise their children there, but Nancy wants no part of it. She escaped Ireland to be free of a cold, domineering mother. She has no intention of going back there again. Ever.
Then tragedy strikes. Just four days after the baby is born, Connor is killed in an accident and Nancy's life is abruptly turned upside down. Being a survivor, she gets on with raising her four young children. But just as her life is getting back on track, she receives a letter from Connor's sister, saying she intends to take over the farm. Personally, Nancy has no use for the farm, but Connor wanted it as a legacy for his children and she will not let it be taken away from them. She decides to fight for the farm through the Irish courts. But, there's one problemβshe'll have to go back to Ireland to do it.
The day she makes makes her up mind to go back, the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor, and her trip to Ireland must be put on hold. Like millions of other American women, Nancy goes to work in a factory for the duration of the war.
Within months of the war's end, Nancy books passage to Ireland. Just before she sets sail, Neil Cullen, Connor's best friend, asks her to marry him. Stunned by this sudden proposal, she promises to give him an answer when she comes home.
And thus begins an odyssey that will take Nancy and the children to Ireland, a place to which she vowed never to return, to fight for a farm she never wanted. She soon meets Sean Garrett, a childhood sweetheart, which further complicates her feelings for Neil. As the fight for the farm makes its way through the courts, Nancy knows she will be forced to make a wrenching decision. Should she keep the farm and raise the children in Ireland, or should she go back to the states? For Neil and Sean, the two men who love her, her decision means everything.