It tells the story of the fictional protagonist, Dinah Kirkham, a native of Manchester, England, who immigrates to the United States and becomes one of the plural wives of Joseph Smith, founder of the Latter Day Saint movement.

But Dinah's elder brother, Robert, as well as her husband, Matthew, do not convert, leading to a permanent schism in the family.

Joseph introduces Dinah to the still-covert practice of plural marriage, and they are sealed for eternity as husband and wife.

Dinah lives to the age of 100, not only outliving all her husbands, but also outlasting the practice of plural marriage, which the Church abandoned in 1890.

Like the character of Dinah, Zina Huntington was born in 1821, converted to Mormonism and became a plural wife of Joseph Smith (who dissolved her marriage to her first husband).