A deeply committed young man falls in love with the beautiful but troubled Acadia, who knows herself too selfish, too sinful, and too skeptical in her faith to marry a preacher. 

Acadia Powers nearly lost her faith at an early age due to what she saw as the hypocrisy of her parents’ generation. In college - where the novel begins - she meets and falls in love with Peter O’Neil, who is fervent in his faith and wants to share the good news with the world. 

Despite serious doubts about her ability to survive as a preacher’s wife, Acadia finally agrees to marry Peter. The two embark with high hopes on a new life in Sugar Sands, Alabama, where Acadia takes a position as a high school teacher while Peter becomes pastor of a small church. 

Song of Sugar Sands recounts Acadia’s struggle to come to terms with issues of faith, while also telling the story of Peter and Acadia’s falling in love and the traumatic first year of their marriage. 

When one of her students attempts suicide after confiding her problems in Acadia, and a new friend and mentor, Beatrice Wood, reveals that she has terminal cancer, Acadia almost quits. Can she reach deep enough inside, or beyond herself, to find what she needs to keep on trying, or has she made too many mistakes already?