Short Synopsis
For fans of Cold Mountain by Charles Frazier and Enemy Women by Paulette Jiles, an evocative, morally complex novel set in rural nineteenth-century North Carolina, as one woman fights to keep her family united, her farm running, and her convictions whole during the most devastating and divisive period in American history.

Full Synopsis
Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina, though Joetta McBride pays it little heed. She and her husband, Ennis, have built a modest but happy life for themselves, raising two sons, fifteen-year-old Henry, and eleven-year-old Robert, on their small subsistence farm. They do not support the Confederacy's position on slavery, but Joetta considers her family to be neutral, believing this is simply not their fight.

Her opinion is not favored by many in their community, including Joetta's own father-in-law, Rudean. A staunch Confederate supporter, he fills his grandsons' heads with stories about the glory of battle and the Southern cause until one night Henry runs off to join the war. At Joetta's frantic insistence, Ennis leaves to find their son and bring him home.

But soon weeks pass with no word from father or son and Joetta is battered by the strain of running a farm with so little help. As the country becomes further entangled in the ramifications of war, Joetta finds herself increasingly at odds with those around her—until one act of kindness brings her family to the edge of even greater disaster.

"Tiffany Morgan narrates the audiobook and and really captured the essence of the time and the heartache that emerged." —Reading Late into the Night

"This is a harrowing tale of bravery and survival I will not soon forget." —Kami Tei, Amazon Book Review

"Morgan's measured cadence brings the rural South to life. She is at her strongest when conveying emotional speeches and conversations." ---AudioFile