The independent and imaginative Christianna (Christie) Wheeler provides the focus for Mason's novel.

Although she unquestioningly loves her husband, Christie finds herself out of place in the large Wheeler family of tobacco farmers. She resists their loud brash demeanor and their unswerving acceptance of farm life as their total existence. Christie's curiosity leads her to question things others take for granted. Her inquisitiveness at times taxes even her husband's patience.

While she finds a soul mate in Amanda, the young wife of the older Wheeler patriarch, Wad Wheeler, Christie still battles a sense of isolation. Amanda shares Christie's spirit, and her longing to know things about the world beyond the farm, but she lacks Christie's control and sensibility.

Amanda participates in much of the superstitious belief of the other Wheelers, while Christie desires to probe beyond the wives' tales which seem to satisfy others. The birth of her...