As the Victorian Age draws to a close, lonely and brokenhearted, Grace Woodruff fights for her sisters' rights to happiness while sacrificing any chance for her own. The eldest of seven daughters, Grace is the core of strength around which the unhappy members of the Woodruff family revolve. As her disenchanted mother withdraws to her rooms, Grace must act as a buffer between her violent, ambitious father and the sisters who depend upon her. Facing a spinsters future, she struggles to hold the broken family together through her fathers infidelity, one sisters alcoholism, and anothers out-of-wedlock pregnancy by an unsuitable match. Forced home by illness, Grace faces fresh anguishand murderwhen her first love returns to wreak havoc in her life. All is not lost, however. In the midst of tragedy, the fires of her heart are rekindled by another. Will the possibility of true love lead Grace to relinquish her responsibilities in the house of women and embrace her own right to happiness?