Timothy Eadon, an outdoorsman, arrived in Boonesborough with a cloud of misery resting on his shoulders. He was a likeable young man but something was troubling him.
Elizabeth Worthington arrived with Jack and Dorothy Walker after traveling for a month from Boston. Beth’s sister Mary O’Neill asked her to come to help with their three children as she was ill with her next pregnancy. Beth was a city girl from a well-to-do background and her struggles to learn the pioneering ways are portrayed in colorful stories.
Historical details are intertwined in the story with Daniel and Rebecca Boone interacting with the other characters in the story. Some were real people, some are fictitious, all are used to shape the characters of Tim and Beth who meet each other soon after Beth’s arrival in Boonesborough when there is an Indian attack and Timothy has an arrow in his shoulder that Doctor Watson removes and Beth nurses him through his fever.
A friendship develops for Tim and Beth, a friendship with boundaries due to an unresolved situation for Beth back in Boston and Tim’s past.