James and Sadie Goodenough have settled their young family into the area known as the Black Swamp and James has started to grow apple trees. Unfortunately, James and Sadie can't agree on anything, let alone the trees, and soon the family begins to fall apart. Robert, one of their sons, leaves home and starts to work for William Lobb collecting new species of trees to send to England. This is really his story. 
 This is a gentle, slow moving story (although be aware it does have some scenes of violence and death) mostly telling the tale of a family of men who love trees, particularly apple trees, and want to learn more about their country. I do enjoy novels set in this period (1700s) and I really liked the story of the trees. I can't say I learned so much about the human characters in the novel but, to be honest, I don't really feel I missed out at all as they really are secondary to nature which is how it should be in a book like this. If you'd like a simple but involving read, I can recommend this one whole heartedly.