THE VOYAGE OF A DRESS is the tale of a young woman dressmaker named Kittie, who, recruited by missionaries, sails with her newly wed and newly ordained husband to Maui, Hawaii, in 1829. She came with those set out to change, yet it is she who changes as she is caught in both the sweeping tide of colonialism and the powerful force of spirit that emanates from the islands themselves.
Everything Kittie once believed unravels as she finds that the islands are nothing what she had expected, her husband's nature turns dark, and her friends Emmaline and Abigail are sent to distant mission posts. After two long years the lonely Kittie falls in love with Diego, a vaquero who arrives from Alta California to help capture and kill dangerous wild bullocks. Despite her skill at dress tailoring, every unredeemable inch of fabric she is forced to let out to hide her pregnancy slowly brings her closer to damnation. Like the treasured dresses in her sea trunk, Kittie realizes that a well-made woman is something only she can create for herself. With the help of a surfing princess and the love she allows to let into her heart, Kittie sees a slim chance, narrow as the eye of a needle, to escape not only a lifeless existence but to prevent the death of those closest to her heart.
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