Emma, a young woman living in post-World War II Canada, is the daughter of strict Quaker upbringing. When she gets pregnant out of wedlock, she is forced by her parents and the state to give up her child for adoption.

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In the U.S., Ruthie and James, a couple in their late twenties, have tried for years for a successful pregnancy. After their fourth miscarriage, they are deemed too old by American adoption agencies and are turned away for the last time.

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The adoption agency social worker learns of the abundance of children available in Canada because of the strict laws that guided the country regarding unwed mothers in the 1950s'. Many young women were forced into unwed mother's homes and their babies were put up for adoption, who often spent months in orphanages before being legally adopted by a married couple. Young women sent to one of these homes understood they would return to their families childless and shamed and would never see their child again. Ruthie's, James's, and Emma's lives are destined to intersect, but not without heartache and pain. With nothing to steer them but their reluctance to accept the inevitable, their journeys end and new lives begin.