Sarah is an expert horsewoman, a crack shot, and a research assistant to her famous brother, whose 1910 discovery of the ancient grass from which all modern wheat was bred, catapulted him to international renown. Chafing under the restrictions of village life in Ottoman Syria, Sarah searches in vain for a local boy who can match her passion, energy, and intellect. When Sarah's brother gets American funding for his dry-farming experiments, he hires a small staff, including a dashing young poet called Avshalom. Although Avshalom is better known for his love poems than for his scientific acumen, he is a quick study and a natural leader, and he soon becomes director of the little research station in the desert. Sarah has met her perfect match. So when Avshalom proposes to Sarah's pretty little sister, she is thrown into so much turmoil that she impulsively agrees to an arranged marriage with a strange man twenty years her senior who lives in faraway Constantinople.