This is the story of two sisters from the East who hear a man speaking at their church of the opportunity and need for women in the West. He shows them a paper called Matrimonial News, filled with photos of men looking for women to start a new life with. He was looking to benefit by capitalizing on the disproportionate amount of men to women in the West by telling them that if they agreed to it, everyone was a winner. 

Eliza is skeptical, having a hard time accepting that marriage should be about social and economic security alone, but her older sister Maggie, who she has always taken care of and couldn’t imagine life without, is excited at the prospect. With much prompting from their mother, who is now a widow thanks to the war, the girls begin their journey west, armed with a few dollars, a trunk full of possessions, memories of a former life, and a handful of letters from their “intendeds”.

Maggie is enthralled with Charles, the man she plans to marry. Eliza, however, is harder to impress. Not only does she have concerns about Charles, but what happens when she finds out that her own “betrothed” has a history of treason to the country she loves? 

As Maggie prepares for her wedding and her life as a bride, Eliza struggles with doubts and questions and discovers along the way that sometimes, the unknown isn’t always a bad thing. 

As the Gold Rush drew men like flies to the West, the Civil War was killing off hundreds of thousands in the East. The women in the East were left with few men to choose from when it came time to be a bride, and little job opportunity when one realized she was now a widow. The loneliness also came then with the social stigma of being a spinster.

Out West, only a few of the hopeful prospectors were striking it rich, but many of them stayed on anyway, to do things like mining for others, farming, and ranching. There was even ample opportunity to open and prosper from a new business. The only thing these men were lacking to create a family and build communities, were wives. Enter the mail order bride, the supply from the East that would meet the demand in the West.