After several years of marriage without a child, Maggie McPhee, a pub owner in late-1850s Boston, discovers she is finally pregnant. After rushing home to tell her husband the good news, she discovers that Silas has made good on his threat to give up his medical practice and go West to seek his fortune in silver. The same thing happened to Maggie's Ma, when Papa left for California to look for gold. Determined to not suffer the same fate as her mother, Maggie sells her belongings and embarks on the greatest adventure of her life: she will travel across the still-young country and track down her wayward husband.