The Stantons and the Nortons were family in the truest, oldest sense: an extended network of kin stretching across the Appalachian mountains, their ties to the land as strong as their ties to one another. So when Larkin Stanton is left parentless at birth in the 1840s, he is taken in by his cousin Arty Norton, and true to the family way, Arty teaches Larkin the old Appalachian ballads the family has sung together for centuries. But when Arty's brother, Hackley, leaves to fight in the Civil War, Larkin finds himself drawn to Hackley's wife, the woman who has held Larkin's heart for years. What Larkin does about that love defies all he has learned about family and loyalty--and reminds us that those mournful mountain ballads didn't come just from the imagination but from the imperfections of the heart.

"Something ancient and wonderful resides in Sheila Kay Adams's heart, and we are lucky indeed that she has chosen to share this knowledge with us through the words of this fine, beautifully wrought novel." --*Silas House, author of Clay's Quilt and A Parchment of Leaves

"Deeply satisfying storytelling propelled by the desires of full-bodied, prickly characters set against a landscape rendered in all its beauty and harshness." --Kirkus Reviews