It is 1665 and Bethia Mayfield, growing up amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans, yearns for an education closed to to her sex. Exploring the island and observing its Wampanoag inhabitants, she encounters Caleb, the young son of a chieftain, and they forge a secret friendship. Bethia's minister father tries to convert the Wampanoag, and one of his projects becomes Caleb's education. A year later, Caleb is studying in Cambridge, and Bethia, reluctantly indentured as a housekeeper, can closely observe Caleb's crossing of cultures.