A young English couple sail to the new land where fortunes like plums are for the taking. But nothing has prepared Hannah Maria, who trusts in the comforts of her brother's home, for the crude life of a Midwest farm in 1868. Only a deep love and her proud spirit sustain her in early bitterness and despair. Jethro, with no experience on the land, wants to be a farmer. A kindly, hardworking couple take the tyros to their hearts. Some lessons are bitter, some laughable, as they become farmer folk. Their first farm turns out to be worthless and they must hire out again on shares. Tender and poignant is the tale of the dress washed out each night, of the two who ran away to see the circus and sold the family's valuable horse. In a great blizzard Jethro goes for nurse and doctor, returns to find a baby has been born without their help. At last Jethro is famous for his Clydesdales. They have an assured position and honors come. The Plums Hang High has a sense of the drama of life itself, of generation succeeding generation.