Victoria as a teenager with difficult family responsibilities, meets Will accidentally and after a very brief teenage romance, becomes pregnant. Will is chased out of town as he has Indian blood and Victoria runs away to hide in the hills and have her baby.
She leaves her baby secretly with a family having a picnic and, hoping for the best, returns home. Over the years she remains the only one managing the farm but returns each year to the place she left her baby, noticing at last that someone has placed a stone on the spot next to those she has left.
Always alone with few friends she shifts to a new location when her family farm is requisitioned for a reservoir. With peach tree stock planted she establishes herself and unexpectedly discovers the whereabouts of her son, now a young man. She has endured as the river has.
A novel about resilience and fortitude set in the 1950s when racism and shunning were some of the less attractive features of rural America. A nice read with a relatively happy ending.
Meg Dillon .