When only a teenager, Honora Keely meets the love of her young life on the beach of her beloved Galway Bay, Ireland. Her Michael, also a teenager, marries her and only a few years later, while they have are in the midst of raising children, Ireland's "Great Hunger" occurs -- the devastating potato famine of the 1840s that killed millions. This is the story of a family's struggle to survive almost insurmountable odds. Honora is a fighter who, with the help of her sister, manages to save enough money for their two families to emigrate to America. In America, Honora forges a whole new life with its own joys and hardships, not the least of which is the Civil War. This gripping family saga beautifully renders an Ireland which was lost to those Irish forced to emigrate to foreign shores.