Joining her cousin Ruby on a search for Ruby's missing father, leads Hildy to a confrontation with wealthy cattleman, Ozzie Kessick.

Three young friends including an orphaned northener, a poor southern farm boy, and a secretly educated slave encounter diverse but intertwining experiences during the Civil War in Virginia in 1862.

Three children from different backgrounds experience major changes in their lives on the eve of the Civil War.

While Gideon struggles to save the family farm and Emily faces charges of spying, their friend Nat attempts to find his mother and sisters even as the Civil War rages in Virginia.

Hildy Corrigan, 12, came home one day to find that her stepmother had taken her brother and 4 sisters and left Hildy alone. Angry and determined, Hildy refuses to stay with her backwoods granny and runs off with her cousin Ruby to find her family. Granny sends an evil mountain hunter on their track, determined to have Hildy to herself, and Hildy despairs of keeping her promise to her siblings to never let them be separated.

Three friends in the Richmond, Virginia area are endangered by the Civil War.

Gideon and Emily find their lives intertwined with that of a slave boy who is attempting to escape to the North.

Returning to the Ozark Mountains to visit their grandmothers, Hildy and Ruby encounter old mountain hatreds, danger, and forgiveness.