In the spring of 1862, widowed Rachel Barnum leaves three children with her farm’s hired man to search for her dying son, Dwight, a soldier in Michigan’s 2nd cavalry. Rachel’s decision to travel alone to Missouri, into the heart of darkness, is either a hero’s journey or a fool’s errand.

Mounting obstacles lead to a large Rebel force entrenched on a Mississippi River island. Rachel fears her chances of finding Dwight in time to save him are shrinking each day she’s gone from her 10-year-old twin girls and another son, 16, who can’t abide the hired man.

With time running out, Rachel faces an agonizing decision: abandon her firstborn to the ravages of the Civil War and go back to family and the man she loves? Or fight on against all odds?