As a young woman in England, Sarah begins keeping a diary.  She marries the attentive Edwin in 1840 and by 1844 he sells his brass foundry and they migrate to Canada to farm.  Sarah seems well supplied with money and hired help to do the laundry and other tasks, but her marriage is fraught with tension.  Edwin has a volatile temper.  When he dies in 1854, Sarah is left with two young children.  She remains on the farm in drastically reduced circumstances and continues to write in her diary into old age.