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A boat trip from Southampton to the Caribbean is just the first in a series of journeys that takes Katherine Harris and her family away from England to a plot of land in Yale, B.C., where her father wants to start a farm. The Harris family's attempt to establish a new life for themselves in turn-of-the-century British Columbia suffers a serious blow at the start: the oldest daughter, Susan dies just as the family finally reaches their new log house in Yale.Just before she dies, Susan presses a nugget of gold into her sister's hand -- the Golden Rose, which was given to her by the grateful parents of a sick child she helped nurse. A stoic Katherine is determined to live up to the virtue that earned her sister the Golden Rose, but her brother George can't deal with the family tragedy and he heads north, Cariboo-bound, in search of gold-digging fields where he hopes to make his fortune. The intrepid Katherine dons boy's clothes and heads north in pursuit, to bring him back to the family and his responsibilities. Helping her to come to terms with Susan's death and to value her own virtue is her friend William, who accompanies her north as far as his family's winter village near Camchin (Lytton).