A single mother. An abandoned farmhouse. An epic battle with the northern wilderness. Broke and desperate, single mother Molly Bannister accepts the ironclad condition laid down in her great-aunt's will: to receive her inheritance, Molly must spend one year in an abandoned, off-the-grid farmhouse deep in the remote backwoods of northern Alberta. If she does, she will be able to sell the farm and fund her four-year-old daughter's badly needed medical treatment. With grim determination, Molly teaches herself the basic pioneer skills. But her greatest perils come from the brutal wilderness itself, from blizzards to grizzly bears. Will she and Bridget survive the savage winter? Will she outsmart the idealist young farmer who would thwart her plan to sell the farm? Not only their financial future, but their very lives are at stake. Only the journal written by her courageous great-aunt, the land's original homesteader, inspires her to struggle on.