The Gates of Eden

Inspired by a true story ...

When Josephine Bell discovers how quickly one can descend from middle-class Victorian comfort to the slums of Liverpool, she makes a fateful decision.

Seeking escape from desperate poverty, the sixteen-year-old joins a community of kindly strangers and embarks on an epic journey across a treacherous ocean and into the North American wilderness, pulling a two-wheeled handcart over the Rocky Mountains to a remote desert kingdom. 

In her new home, a Mormon settlement in the Utah Territory, Josephine is pressured into a polygamous marriage with a man almost four decades her senior. She struggles to find her own path amidst a backdrop of rising violence and haunting tragedy. Will Josephine find the love and refuge she seeks?

The Gates of Eden explores the timeless mysteries of faith and doubt, fear and love through the eyes of a girl on the cusp of adulthood.