In 1906, mortified by her mother's suffragist activities that cause the family to move from New York City to Cape Light, fourteen-year-old Rose sees no value in her mother's feminist views until she tries to enter a horse riding competition open only to boys.

While living in Cape Light during the years 1904 to 1906, thirteen-year-old Amanda struggles to obey her widowed father's orders not to see the boy she loves, despite her angry resentment of her parent's courtship of a local widow.