Helene is a shipwreck survivor washed ashore near a small English village. There, she is swept off her feet by widowed pastor Edmund and the two soon marry, with the puritanical Edmund believing his bride to be untouched by another man. But it seems that she has a history, and a dark one at that.

In the wake of Bird Raymond's death, for which Helene is blamed, the shipwreck survivor attempts to adjust to life as a pastor's wife. Negotiating devious Dorothy's wicked schemes grows increasingly tricky when she's also blamed for the deteriorating health of Mother Mathilde.