The Touch

Growing up in Scotland, Alexander Kinross is fascinated by a little girl named Elizabeth, but he leaves home as a teenager, travels to America during the Gold Rush and prospers, then takes his money and settles in Australia, where he founds a town named after himself. Needing a wife, he sends for Elizabeth, now 16, who flees her poor and brutal father and lands in Australia to marry a wealthy man she ends up disliking--her only friend Alexander's mistress, Ruby. As the years go by, Elizabeth's daughter is raped and bears a child, Ruby's son Lee becomes an integral part of Elizabeth's life, and she eventually finds a kind of peace with her despised husband, Alexander.