d friends, was sixteen years old when the US Civil War started. Now two years into the war, her Uncle Edwin and cousin Marie are dead, most of the four hundred slaves have run away, and she is responsible--responsible for the one-thousand-acre Johnson Plantation just outside Vicksburg, Mississippi, and the care and safety of her mother and three younger siblings. Her father and one of her brothers, Andrew, are fighting for the South, while her oldest brother, Jonathan, is fighting for the North. What will happen to everyone? Will her family men come home? Will she ever find love? Will this war ever be over?

Follow Bella and her family through their days on the plantation and the days after the war.