Bram Deagan has a thriving trading business, a beautiful wife and a growing family. Since he has a gift for matchmaking and wishes to see his friends Dougal and Mitchell happily married too, he doesn't hesitate to suggest they find wives. In England, Eleanor Prescott has not forgotten the ship's captain who was a true friend to her. Dougal McBride told her to come to him if she was free. When her ailing husband dies, she wonders if she dare return to Western Australia. Will Dougal still want her after nearly a year? Mitchell Nash has asked his cousin in England whether he knows any suitable lady. Though what sort of woman would make such an arduous voyage to marry someone she's never met? For one widow, however, desperate to keep her young son from a cruel relative's clutches, Mitchell's invitation is a lifeline she will grasp with both hands. Both Eleanor and Jacinta bravely take a huge risk on the chance of happiness and set off for Australia. But for Jacinta at least, the troubles of her old life can't be easily left behind.

Cassandra Blake has raised her three motherless sisters. The girls are the pride of their book-loving, impractical father, and not in a hurry to marry. Then the American Civil War cuts off supplies of cotton to Lancashire, the mills fall silent and there is no work. There is a stark choice: stay and risk starvation or pack up and begin again elsewhere. Cassandra has fallen in love with Reece Gregory, but he can't support a wife. When he's given the chance to start a new life in Western Australia, he seizes the opportunity, promising to send for her. Then an old feud tears the family apart. Cassandra is kidnapped and her sisters are forced to sail with a group of desperate cotton lasses to Fremantle. Penniless and alone, Cassandra is determined to find them again — but when she is offered a way, there is a painful price to pay.