Swept up in the drama of an infant Church expanding westward into Ohio and Missouri, the fictional Steed family members become eyewitnesses to miracles as well as the horror of mob violence.

The Steeds are reunited in Far West, Missouri, all the while animosity towards the Mormons is growing unchecked. Violence erupts and Governor Boggs issues an extermination order for the Mormons leading to the spilling of innocent blood at the Haun's Mill massacre. Far West falls, Joseph Smith is jailed, and the Mormon Saints are forced from Missouri. Even Joshua Steed takes up arms, but will he fight for or against the Mormons?

A season of rejuvenation for the Mormons as, after the horrors of the Missouri persecutions, they find refuge across the Mississippi River in Illinois, where they establish the city of Nauvoo. Despite ongoing trials, they feel that God has granted them this season of relief, hope and joy.

Follow the fictional Steed family from June 1846 to October 1847 as they participate in some of the most pivotal and dramatically charged events in Church history, including the migration of the Saints from the banks of the Missouri River to the Valley of the Great Salt Lake.

The Steeds have been scattered — and the family is only split up further as the story unfolds. Will and Alice's voyage aboard the Brooklyn nears its end as the ship approaches the California shore. Peter and Kathryn continue their journey westward in the Donner-Reed party. In Nauvoo,

Melissa and Carl find their situation growing increasingly dangerous and their marriage more and more strained. Other Steed family members are temporarily encamped at the Missouri River, where the Saints will set up winter quarters. When the United States government, at war with Mexico, calls for five hundred Mormon volunteers to form a battalion, some of the Steeds march with that battalion in its history-making trek across the continents. Meanwhile, other family members become part of the pioneer companies that, at last, establish in the West a place of refuge for the Saints.