1968 - a year of upheaval for the nation and for the Mitchell family. When her father goes MIA in Vietnam, ten-year-old Connemara and her family move to West Virginia and into her mother's ancestral home - a neglected house whose walls hold old secrets of forbidden love and knowledge of things best forgotten. For reasons she does not yet understand, Conn is chosen as the one who must unravel the mystery surrounding her ancestor, Caitriona Ni Faolain, who disappeared soon after the Civil War - a mystery that has condemned her family to a curse for over a hundred years. Set during two of the most turbulent periods of American history, this story takes the reader on an epic journey through time as Conn delves deeper and deeper into her family's past in order to end the curse before it is passed on to a new generation. Along the way, she teaches the adults around her something of the enduring power of love and hatred - and the terrible price of redemption.