Sophie couldn't wait to leave. Sophie Knutson was certain she could not live without Hamre Bjorklund and rejects her father's request to pospone her marriage until graduation and convinces Hamre to elope. Far from her family, Sophie finds that life as a fisherman's bride in Ballad, Washington, is not all that she had envisioned. Pregnant and lonely while Hamre is away at sea, she hires on at a fish cannery only to be fired after fainting on the job.