The 1620 storm-tossed voyage of the Mayflower is the worst experience of Mercy Clifton's sixteen years. She and her parents are Pilgrims, bound for the New World, where they can worship God in peace. Relying on her friends, Elizabeth and Priscilla, and the affection of an English Springer Spaniel named Loyal, Mercy survives the crossing and their first perilous months in America. But she is tested through painful loss, her attraction to the handsome but disturbing Jack Billington, and the perils of living in a danger-filled wilderness. Mercy faces her greatest challenge when she and her Indian friend Amie make an ominous discovery. Young rebels in the colony have so provoked the Native Americans that all-out war seems certain.