Six-year-old Sarah meets her father Alex Stafford for the first time and learns she is the product of an affair.

After Mae is rejected by her family, she and Sarah settle in New York where Mae becomes a prostitute to survive.

Duke rapes young Sarah for the first time, strips away her given name, and renames her Angel.

Michael Hosea spots Sarah walking through Pair-a-Dice and hears God tell him to marry her.

Michael pays nightly to visit Sarah at the brothel and proposes marriage each time, but she dismisses him with laughter.

Sarah demands her earnings from the Duchess and Magowan beats her ruthlessly in her room.

Michael carries the unconscious Sarah out of the brothel and slips his mother's ring onto her finger.

Sarah and Michael have sex for the first time, and she calls out his name aloud.

Paul arrives at Michael's farm and immediately recognizes Sarah as the high-priced prostitute from Pair-a-Dice.

Sarah returns to working at a Pair-a-Dice saloon and Michael bursts in, dragging her out past the other patrons.

Sarah confesses to Michael that Duke had her forcibly sterilized, meaning she can never bear children.

The café where Sarah works burns down and Duke emerges from the ashes to take her captive.

Duke forces Sarah onto a stage before a crowd of baying men at his San Francisco gambling house.

Sarah walks to Michael's field, embraces him while crying, and finally tells him her real name is Sarah.

Sarah miraculously becomes pregnant, and she and Michael raise four children before dying within a month of each other.

Sarah begins life as an unwanted child, and after her mother's death she is sold into sexual slavery and renamed Angel by her abuser Duke. As a young woman in California she works as a prostitute until a farmer named Michael Hosea hears God tell him to marry her and carries her out of the brothel. Despite Michael's steadfast love, Sarah repeatedly struggles to accept it, fleeing the farm and returning to her old life before Michael retrieves her each time. The gravest blow comes when Sarah admits she was forcibly sterilized by Duke and runs away for what she believes is the last time. Duke captures Sarah again and forces her onto a stage at his gambling house, but a wealthy man named Jonathan Axle rescues her. Sarah ultimately walks back to Michael's farm, reveals her true name, and miraculously goes on to have four children before they die within a month of each other.

The headline moments of Sarah's journey from abuse to redemption.

Cleo gets drunk at a coastal bar and leaves young Sarah to spend the night alone in a cold hallway.

Mae dies when Sarah is eight years old, leaving Sarah in the care of her alcoholic uncle Rab.

Rab leads Sarah through dark streets to a wealthy man's house and sells her to the stranger inside.

Sarah lives as the most expensive prostitute in Pair-a-Dice, working under the Duchess at the Palace brothel.

As Magowan's beating of Sarah continues, she taunts him, trying to provoke him into killing her outright.

Lucky finds Michael outside the brothel and begs him to rescue Sarah before it is too late.

Because Michael does not know Sarah's real name, he tries calling her Mara, Amanda, and Tirzah.

Sarah tries to walk to Pair-a-Dice alone, gets lost in the wilderness, and Michael finds her and offers her a ride to the road.

Paul demands sex as payment for driving Sarah to Pair-a-Dice; she agrees and he is disgusted with himself afterward.

Sarah arrives in Pair-a-Dice to find the Palace has burned down, Lucky died in the fire, and Magowan was hanged.

Michael and Sarah travel together to Sacramento so Michael can sell his farm produce at market.

Paul and Miriam develop feelings for each other, and Michael sells the Altman family the west end of his land.

Sarah finds work as a cook at Virgil Harper's café in San Francisco and introduces herself as Mrs. Hosea.

Before leaving Duke's establishment with Jonathan Axle, Sarah goes back to collect the two young girls from Duke's private room.

Paul searches San Francisco and finds Sarah running the House of Magdalena, which he initially mistakes for a brothel.

Sarah's childhood is marked by abandonment and exploitation, from being left alone in a brothel hallway by a drunk Cleo to watching her mother descend into prostitution and death before being sold to Duke by her own uncle. After escaping to California, Sarah builds a life as the most expensive prostitute in Pair-a-Dice, and when Michael rescues her he tries giving her new names since she never reveals her real one. The people surrounding Sarah — Lucky, Paul, the Altman family, and Jonathan Axle's household — each play vital roles in shaping her path toward healing. Paul's complicated relationship with Sarah, from demanding sex for a ride to Pair-a-Dice to eventually finding her in San Francisco, forms a key secondary arc running through the novel. Sarah's act of taking the two young girls from Duke's private rooms before escaping with Axle signals her shift from victim to protector. Her decision to open the House of Magdalena completes that transformation, giving her life new purpose and direction.

The supporting events and secondary beats that shape Sarah's story.

Cleo drunkenly tells young Sarah that men only care about sex, planting a belief Sarah carries into adulthood.

Duke's associate strangles Rab with a cord as Sarah watches helplessly, and Duke then renames the terrified girl Angel.

Michael kisses Sarah during one of his brothel visits, then storms out and argues with God about his vow of celibacy.

Michael leaves Pair-a-Dice and Sarah watches from the brothel window, feeling she has thrown away her last chance at escape.

Michael leads Sarah to a hilltop in the middle of the night and they sit together waiting for the sunrise.

Walnut hull dye stains Sarah's hands for weeks, preventing her from returning to Pair-a-Dice to collect her money.

Sarah returns to Michael's farm after her failed escape attempt and announces she will stay until spring.

Paul tells Michael the truth about Sarah's past as a prostitute, and Michael responds by punching Paul.

Sarah jumps from Michael's moving coach; he drags her back, admitting he loves her and will not kill her despite his rage.

Sarah tells the Altman family about her past as a prostitute, expecting disgust, but Miriam embraces her warmly instead.

Sarah reveals to Michael that her father Alex unknowingly had sex with her at Duke's before shooting himself.

Michael makes windchimes for Sarah; they are intimate, she weeps afterward, and she is gone before morning.

Paul and Miriam marry after Miriam confesses her love and persuades him not to leave for the gold mines.

Jonathan Axle steps forward at Duke's gambling house to join Sarah's hymn, shaming the crowd into silence and stopping Duke.

Paul finds Sarah at the House of Magdalena, admits he was wrong about her, and convinces her to return to Michael.

From childhood, Sarah is shaped by damaging lessons — Cleo's cynical view of men and the trauma of watching her uncle murdered — that convince her she is unworthy of love or redemption. Michael's persistent courtship forces a series of turning points, from their charged first kiss to the night he leads her to a hilltop to watch the sunrise together. Sarah's repeated escapes and returns reveal her inner war between self-protection and genuine connection, culminating in her shocking confessions about her father and her forced sterilization. After leaving what she believes is for the last time, Sarah reaches her lowest point at Duke's gambling house, where singing a hymn becomes the moment she fully opens herself to God. Jonathan Axle's rescue and Paul and Miriam's marriage reshape the circumstances around Sarah, while Paul's eventual reconciliation with her clears the final obstacle to her return to Michael. Each revelation strips away another layer of Sarah's armor until she is at last able to speak her real name aloud.

The key decisions, discoveries, and emotional shifts that drive Sarah's transformation.