Newly married Elizabeth Dobbs finds herself alone, surrounded by Confederate sympathizers on the Missouri/Kansas border, while her husband, Wid, fights in the Union Army during the Civil War. She copes with pregnancy and loss of her child, runs the family farm, and is threatened by armies and guerillas from both sides. She is unsure whom she can trust.

Wid returns at the end of the war, broken in body and spirit. When he dies, Elizabeth creates a new life for herself as a businesswoman and community activist.

Elizabeth, as an old woman, looks back on the history that she lived through without moving more than five miles from where she started life.

Virginia van Druten lives with her husband, a retired physician, in the San Francisco area. The story was loosely based on actual events, with fictionalized characters.

The author's great-grandfather fought in the Union Army, was captured and imprisoned at Andersonville. The story of his wife left at home is entirely imagined. Researching and writing this first novel was a journey of discovery.

July 3, 1858, was a hot, muggy, dirty day in Independence, Missouri. Although the sun shone harshly, intermittent rains the previous days had left mud puddles. The town square was mired by livestock and drovers, and by farmers bringing their wagon loads of wares to market.

Three men on foot, with shirts and dungarees plastered to their sweating bodies, tried to move a buffalo out of a pen to be slaughtered for the Independence Day picnic.

Two of them held the animal between tightly stretched ropes tied around its horns. The third man whooped and swung his dusty hat at the rear of the beast, encouraging it on. One of the men slipped in a pile of greasy dung, losing his footing and his hold on the rope. Feeling the slack, the buffalo plowed through the enclosure fence, and the chase was on. Men and boys rushed forward on foot or mule or horse, carrying guns or clubs, shouting and yelling.

A girl, leaning over the hitching post outside her father's emporium, saw the beast heading her way. She was too terrified to move, her legs almost collapsing beneath her. Her face lost all color.

A man appeared through the kicked-up dust, running for a spot between the animal and the girl. He stopped, took a firm stance, and fired his pistol. Twice. The buffalo fell to its knees about one hundred feet from the girl.

Bystanders ran to her aid. She looked for the man who had fired the shots. He was already walking away once she was tended to. But one glimpse was enough. She knew this was the man of her heart.