Ruth Jone's family was among the settlers who came to Kenya at the turn of the century to carve farms and towns from the wilderness. Ruth leads a lonely existence with her bitter father in the hills above the town of Cambellburgh. Her future is without promise... That is until the day Douglas MacPherson, a Canadian missionary doctor, arrives in town looking for land on which to build his hospital for African natives. He faces endless obstacles to his plan due largely to the prejudices of the town's founding family. Douglas may have to move his hospital to another town, and with him will go Rut