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Fifteen year old schoolgirl, Mary Margaret Riley, takes a job in the Catholic Church rectory answering telephones in 1963. Father Antonio Velasquez arrives at the parish having just been transferred from Boston. Mary Margaret is flattered at the attention he pays her, and is honored when he appoints her his special assistant. But when Father’s compliments turn into inappropriate touching, Mary Margaret is first shocked, then flattered, then inconsolable, but always silent. She tries to approach her mother but, as usual, is admonished. Her dad, though loving, is absent, which leaves Mary Margaret terribly alone to deal with this manipulative, lecherous priest.

Fast forward to 2007. Mary Margaret, now Maggie, goes to Los Angeles for settlement conferences with the Los Angeles Archdiocese. While there, she meets another victim of priestly sexual abuse, Javier Lopez, and the two become friends as they share stories of their lives scarred by the abuse, and their hope that the future will be made easier for them when they receive their monetary award. More important for Maggie, is being able to once again meet Father Antonio face to face and tell him of how he ruined her life.

 The California Gold Rush all but over, abandoned first by her mother who leaves with the gold, then by her Pa who just leaves, fourteen year old Grace has a lot of growing up to do. Vina Ranch in Tehama, California isn't home, but it's safe. Still, Grace longs to be reunited with her parents, and her new friend, sixteen year old Jesse Partain is eager to help.

They devise a plan to ride their horses to Sacramento in search of Pa when Grace receives a letter leading her to believe that's where he is. It takes two days to ride to Sacramento, and along the way they have a frightening encounter with an Indian fighter and his gang who've captured several Indian children after killing their parents. Fortunately, Jesse knows the Indian fighter, and Jesse and Grace are allowed to go on their way.

Grace and Jesse find Pa, all right, but he's in an opium den in China Town, sick and heavily addicted to opium. Grace refuses to leave him there, so they take him out of the den, bathe and feed him, then load him onto one of the horses for the ride back to Tehama. Once there, the ranch housekeeper helps them get Pa through opium withdrawal and back to health.

Pa eventually recovers and is able to work on the ranch. Grace works in the kitchen with the housekeeper. She and Jesse become better friends and a romance begins to bloom.

Though she's grateful that her Pa is back to health, Grace still wants her mother. Even though Pa has told her time and again that Mother ran off with the gold money, Grace doesn't believe it in her heart and soul.

When a stranger traveling through the area stops at the ranch and tells them a story about a woman from San Francisco who has been traveling the area looking for her lost husband and daughter, Grace realizes it must be her mother. Once again, Grace and Jesse hatch a plan for another adventure filled trip to Sacramento.