It's 1861. The youngest of three sisters, Bridie lives on the remote Scottish island of Tornish.

Although she loves the island, with its wild seas and big skies, she nurses a guilty dream of flight, and to travel to America and experience the freedom of the New World.

But her family are struggling under the spiteful oppression of the new laird, and it seems that even some of the laird's own household are desperate to leave.

When the laird's full cruelty becomes apparent, there's no more time for daydreams as Bridie needs to help the people she loves escape across the sea.