When the Little Rock Central High School desegregation crisis sends shock waves across the nation in 1957, widower Sam Tate, a white merchant and councilman with two young children, faces new questions of conscience, belief, and child-rearing in tiny Unionville, Arkansas. Becky Reeves, an unmarried northerner who has come south to teach while hiding a secret past, must decide how to approach current events in her seventh-grade class without getting fired.

Gran Tate, a strong-willed woman who likes quilting and helping raise her grandchildren, dislikes blacks and Yankees and fears she may lose everything she holds dear. Life gets more complicated for all of them when Governor Faubus calls out the National Guard to stop the integration of Central High, President Eisenhower sends federal troops to enforce it, and Unionville editor Preston Upshaw fans the flames of hatred to sell newspapers.

Amid cross burnings, White Citizens' Council meetings, and fervent speculating and sermonizing by townsfolk, white and black, at home, work, and church, Sam questions old ways, Gran clings to tradition, and Becky angers parents and school officials. The unrest brings Sam and Becky together then combines with Becky's secret to stand between them in an emotional journey through a world where love and courage struggle against fear and hate.

This meticulously researched, multiple award-winning novel about the civil rights movement in the South captures America's small-town past and explores issues that continue to shape our lives today.