November, 1932, Burke Bay on Puget Sound - Local Indians called the natural spring burbling up in the forest "Spirit water." Scandinavian settlers took that to mean whiskey and named the stream flowing from the spring "Whiskey Creek." Rumor has it the creek's name attracted the dark stranger, Farley Price, who disrupted life in the community. Minutes after school teacher Maeva Swanson first hears the stranger's name, she meets his daughter, a child who loves books, and ignores concerns about the man, especially those proffered by her fiance, boat captain Axel Jenson. Orval Blevins, who owns the creek headwaters, distills a fine product and hires the stranger to handle delivery. Eleanor Price, the strangers wife, suffers abuse at his hands but grows to love the community and strive to remain there. Bachelor brothers, Hauk and Lang Nordlund, are quiet observers attracted to unavailable women - Maeva and Eleanor. They bide their time, waiting for the inevitable showdown with Farley Price.