When fourteen-year-old Marcella Coyle leaves Ireland to join her brother, Fr. Jimmy, in Alabama, she could not have foreseen the turmoil that lay ahead. Far from home and the boy she almost loves, plunged into the tense cauldron of the Deep South as the twentieth century begins, she struggles to understand her outspoken brother and his perilous way of seeing everyone as a friend. Her own plans are stymied by war and a rising bigotry that makes Jimmy a target as the KKK returns to the streets. Meanwhile Marcella's friendship with the enigmatic Bessie Stubbs, and her impulse to rescue some meaning from her exile, has consequences that shock the city.
And still on the edge of memory, she senses something bigger ...

When fourteen-year-old Marcella Coyle leaves Ireland to join her brother, a parish priest in Alabama, she could not have foreseen the turmoil that lay ahead. Plunged into the tense cauldron of the early twentieth century's Deep South, Marcella struggles to understand her outspoken brother and his perilous refusal to alter his mission even as the KKK takes to the streets, spewing hatred at minorities and Catholics. As she strives to rescue some meaning out of her exile in this foreign land, Marcella is swept up into a dangerous friendship, with consequences that shock the city and make an indelible mark on history.

When fourteen-year-old Marcella Coyle leaves Ireland to join her brother, a parish priest in Alabama, she could not have foreseen the turmoil that lay ahead. Plunged into the tense cauldron of the early twentieth century's Deep South, Marcella struggles to understand her outspoken brother and his perilous refusal to alter his mission even as the KKK takes to the streets, spewing hatred at minorities and Catholics. As she strives to rescue some meaning out of her exile in this foreign land, Marcella is swept up into a dangerous friendship, with consequences that shock the city and make an indelible mark on history.

When fourteen-year-old Marcella Coyle leaves Ireland to join her brother, a parish priest in Alabama, she could not have foreseen the turmoil that lay ahead. Plunged into the tense cauldron of the early twentieth century's Deep South, Marcella struggles to understand her outspoken brother and his perilous refusal to alter his mission even as the KKK takes to the streets, spewing hatred at minorities and Catholics. As she strives to rescue some meaning out of her exile in this foreign land, Marcella is