In 1944, Tess DeMello abruptly ends her engagement to the love of her life, marries a mysterious stranger and moves to Hickory, North Carolina. Tess’s new husband, Henry Kraft, is a secretive man who often stays out all night and hides money from his new wife and Tess quickly comes to realise that she is now trapped in a strange and loveless marriage.

The people of Hickory love and respect Henry and see Tess as an outsider, treating her with suspicion and disdain. She suspects people are talking about her, plotting behind her back, and following her as she walks around town. What does everyone know about Henry that she does not?

When a polio epidemic strikes the area, taking the lives of some of its children, the townspeople band together to build a polio hospital in less than three days. Tess, who has a nursing degree, bucks Henry’s wishes and begins to work at the hospital, finding meaning in treating the young victims. Yet at home, Henry’s actions grow more baffling and alarming by the day. As Tess works to save the lives of her patients, can she untangle her husband’s mysterious behaviour and save her own life?