In 1909, struggling to farm his remote homestead and raise three sons, widower Oliver Milliron despreately needs help. A housekeeper's ad in a Milwaukee newspaper, "Can't cook but doesn't bite," leads him to hire her site unseen. When perky Rose Llewellyn arrives, she brings her brainy brother, Morris. Though Rose whistles through her work at the Milliron house, and Morris becomes teacher at the one-room school, these two newcomers conceal a past that is colorful and infamous.