BASED ON A TRUE STORY
*In a land occupied by foreign powers and torn by confusion and
conflict, a mother seeks to weave her family and her past into a fabric
that will not tear.
*
Their Lives Were Woven by Wars and Wilderness Places, and Tied by the
Peace of Family and Faith.
As the 1840s bring conflict to the Pacific Northwest's rugged Columbia
Country, new challenges face Marie Dorion Venier Toupin: the wife,
mother, and Ioway Indian woman who crossed the Rocky Mountains with the
Astor Expedition, the first big fur trapping expedition after Lewis and
Clark's. On French Prairie in the newly forming Oregon Territory, Marie
strives to meet the needs of her conflict-ridden neighbors: British
settlers and Americans, missionaries and disease-stricken natives, fur
trappers and French Canadian farming families, and the surviving natives
of the region.
At the same time, as a mother, Marie must weave together the threads of
an unraveling family. One daughter compares and judges as she seeks to
find her place; another reaches for elusive evidence of her mother's
love. Marie's memories are threatened with the emergence of a figure
from the past. In the midst of this turmoil, Marie discovers an
empowering spiritual truth: Unconditional love can shed light on even
the darkest places in the heart.