It is 1864. On a small farm in northwest Georgia, twelve-year-old Tatum Wiley runs wild under her father's doting eye, devising clever plans that generally go awry and land her in trouble. But Sherman's Union troops are on the move and when her father joins the Confederate Army, Tatum's promise to care for Rayford is given lightly. Consumed by grief and despair she resumes her childish antics...until her brothers enlist, her grandfather dies, and her mother lures Rayford off the farm. Following a midnight search filled with real and imagined dangers Tatum realizes it is up to her alone to care for Rayford. But when their farm comes under a Yankee attack, it is one of Rayford's carvings that changes the course of their lives and forces Tatum to question if what she's been fighting hardest is the thing she wants most.