Emeline "Emma" Adams is an eighteen year old girl living in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania with her aunt Violet, having been sent there by her mother two years before from Marblehead, Ohio. Her friend and fiancé, Peter Shepard, left for the war in 1861, which will surely be over by Christmas. Life has flipped on it's head for Emma, but nothing prepared her for the first few days in July, 1863, when the war arrived on her door steps. Certainly not for battered and bleeding man strung along her cellar stairs. Keeping a Union soldier is dangerous, and Emma understands that it could be life or death. But as the Battle progresses, it becomes clear not only to Emma but to all citizens of the sleepy farm town that every step they take now decides their fate. Even so, an opportunity presents itself: as a handsome stranger takes refuge in her Aunt's home, Emma feels oddly drawn to the southern sympathizer. She has a choice to make: either stay in the sleepy farming town, or have a life of adventure with the visitor?