No one thought that the Second Street boarding house would be destroyed by arsonists. No one wanted to believe that Nate Johnson would be beaten simply because of his race. But things have gotten ugly in Blaineton, New Jersey. It is in the middle of the Civil War and the abolitionist sympathies of the people in Maggie Blaine Smith's boarding house have made them a target for racist and Copperhead forces. When the violence threatens to get worse, the sheriff suggests that they move until things calm down. Maggie's husband Eli has a proposal for them: His two sisters need help aiding fugitive slaves evade the Confederate Army and find freedom in the north. In order to do this the family must relocate to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Maggie and her family risk the move, hoping that they will find some badly-needed peace. But can that happen when newspaperman Eli and reporter/photographer Chester Carson are off covering the war? Can they find peace when Maggie's son-in-law Edgar and her other daughter's beau, Patrick are still in the army? How can Maggie and the remaining members of her family start anew in a strange place? And how will all of them hold on to their courage, strength, and faith as the war rages and Confederate and Union forces march into Pennsylvania?