Longing to escape her restricted life in 1890s Oakland, California, feisty 17-year-old Beatrice Blake confronts her mother and deserts her fianc to accept a teaching job in the frontier mill town of Snohomish, Washington. But her dream of independence quickly turns grim. She proves unable to control her rowdy school children, the town's people accuse her of triggering a lumberman's death and of bringing smallpox. Her favorite dark cape prompts...