A young woman discovers a delicious cache of heirlooms in an abandoned safe deposit box: bundles of handwritten letters, photographs, expired passports, both American and Italian, and twenty-two leather boxes, each holding a priceless piece of jewelry. Drawn to the mysterious woman in the photographs, Jane digs deeper into the woman's luxurious, golden life and the older, dashing man who occupies her pictures and letters. The details are both glamorous...

In 1846, German immigrant Mariel Wolffe tries to escape her past, and the abusive man that she works for, and find love in the arms of a Texas ranger, but war with Mexico threatens to shatter any chance they may have together.

The spirited daughter of Bohemian immigrants, Antonia must adapt to a hard existence on the desolate prairies of the Midwest. Enduring childhood poverty, teenage seduction, andfamily tragedy, she eventually becomes a wife and mother on a Nebraska farm. A fictional record of how women helped forge the communities that formed a nation.