 1851, Manitoba s Red River Valley. As winter sets in, a young woman on the edge of madness arrives exhausted at the fort, a wilderness station, claiming she murdered her husband. She s placed in a cell; for the next several months, she sews while the local prefect, Henry Mullen, investigates. In flashbacks we see her arranged marriage to the hard-working but angry Simon, who takes her to his half-built homestead and abuses her. She s treated well by his younger brother George, with whom she laughs, but he s too weak to protect her. Is she guilty? At the homestead, Mullen hears a different story, one that exonerates Annie. Can he unearth the truth? Then what?