Maggie had a dream-She"d escape from the poverty and shame of her family"s bleak existence, determined not to surrender to the misery all around her. She"d know the warmth and pleasures of a secure home and the ecstasies of being held in the arms of a loving man. She"d read of such happiness and now she dared to imagine that it could be hers. But it would be a long journey for Maggie, a tempestuous year of breathtaking adventure as she learned that dreams of love often disintegrate into the brutal realities of treachery, violence and ravishment.