Century is a frontier town in Oregon where the resources and pastureland are being fought over by ranchers and sheepherders. Esther, a nineteen year old orphan, comes to this town to seek out her third cousin, her only living relative once her mom dies. This cousin, Ferris Picket, is a rancher who is trying to claim the land for cattle. The fighting over the land escalates and Esther falls in love with a sheepherder-- an enemy of her cousin Pickett.

I liked the romance element in this book but there was not enough of it. I would describe this as a slow-moving plot-driven novel. The writing was too formal and ponderous, and too much passive voice. The ending made a huge difference between 2.5 stars and the 1 star that I gave it. I naturally wanted to know if Ester would end up with her sheepherder but the reader is denied that satisfaction. Decide for yourself; I think you will agree this is a horrible ending:

"Let one not be delivered into an ending, even a happy one.  Let one not tell everything-- whether she and Ben remained together, or separated and met again, or never met again, whether her daughters are his daughters, their young brows hilariously dire...There is no ending, happy or not, and no one is completely lost...And Century is tiny, after all.  Look how the mind can hold it, rock it, like a child."

That is the suckiest ending ever!