In the springtime of 1886, three women leave their comfortable homes and head out for a mountain retreat, bound for adventure and self-discovery. Addie's old friend Ethel has been away at the Territorial University of Washington for the past four years, earning her Bachelor of Science degree. So much has happened in that time, they scarcely know each other any more. When Ethel proposes a trip to a hot spring on Mt. Rainier that the other students raved about, it seems like a perfect opportunity to re-build old bonds and create new ones. Addie invites her friend Lizzie along, sure that the trip will become a golden memory for all of them. But as they head out to the mountain together, each woman carries the problems of home with her. On the eve of their departure, Addie makes a discovery that shakes her faith in her perfect marriage to its very core. Lizzie can't stop thinking about her own failure to realize her ultimate dream, and Ethel wonders if she'll ever work out what, exactly, it means to be a woman. Their journey together presents its own challenges, not the least of which begin when Ethel adopts an orphaned owl chick and decides to bring it along with them. Before they can all go home again, each of the three women will have to look to her friends for advice on dealing with life's difficult issues, and at the same time look within herself to find her own definition of womanhood.