Charlotte was a Yankee and Maggie was Irish. In 1850’s Westfield their budding friendship was a problem. Charlotte listened as suppertime conversations became heated debates. Even her Aunt Lucy and her brother Zach were full of venom toward the Irish. As tensions between the two communities rose, rumors began to fly, and fists soon followed.

Author Carol Otis Hurst captures this volatile time in American history through the unlikely friendship between two girls from opposing sides, revealing the ignorance and prejudice that threatened to erupt into violence and overwhelm New England communities, and indeed the whole country, on the eve of the Civil War.