Abigail Breckenridge is studying to become Ann Arbor's second female attorney, but a scandal interrupts her studies and sends her off to Europe to avoid the town gossips. Charles Van Aker, a 6' 5" poet, is the oldest of eight and at the age of 18 helps run his father's furniture company. Charles and Abigail have been friends since grade school, so when the scandal surrounding Abigail violently erupts, Charles and his large family of brothers and sisters stand by Abigail. Through scandal, distance and lost faith, the love between Abigail and Charles grows steadily, but can it survive the tragedies that a typhoid epidemic buries them under?