Precocious twelve-year-old Louisa Mae Cardinal lives in the hectic New York City of 1940 with her family. Then tragedy strikes - and Lou and her younger brother, Oz, must go with their invalid mother to live on their great-grandmother's farm in the Virginia mountains.

Suddenly Lou finds herself coming of age in a new landscape, making her first true friend, and experiencing adventures tragic, comic, and audacious.

 When a dark, destructive force encroaches on her new home, her struggles will play out in a crowded Virginia courtroom... and determine the future of two children, an entire town, and the mountains they love.