In 1632, Deborah Bachiler Wing, a widow with four young sons, immigrated to New England with her eccentric father, the Reverend Stephen Bachiler. England's 17th-century Puritans suffered severe punishment—including having their ears lopped off—for worshiping the way they felt God intended: purely and simply. The quest of Deborah and her father, who had been "harried from the Kingdom," was to find religious freedom, which eluded them even in the Colonies. This is the narrative of Deborah, daughter and wife of Puritan ministers, who, as an everywoman, helped settle and establish the character of what would become a new nation.