The story revolves around a First Nations soldier (Maliseet) who joins the Royal Canadian Artillery and is stationed overseas during World War II, fighting in both Italy and Northwest Europe. While in the United Kingdom he meets, then marries, a British girl who as a 'war bride' sails to Canada in 1946. The pair set up housekeeping on a First Nations reserve in northwestern New Brunswick and the story follows them and their family through their trials and tribulations both at Maliseet, New Brunswick and later in the capital city of Fredericton, New Brunswick.