Fighting for change in rural Appalachia

On the eve of WWII, Lilliana Swope’s mother dies and she flees her abusive husband for the home of her only living relative in the foothills of No Creek, North Carolina. Though Hyacinth Belvidere hasn’t seen Lilliana since she was five, she offers her cherished great-niece a safe harbor. Their joyful reunion inspires plans to open a public library where everyone is welcome, no matter the color of their skin.

Slowly Lilliana finds friendship in No Creek—with kindhearted Reverend Jesse Willard and with Ruby Lynne Wishon, a woman whose secrets could destroy the town. When the plans for the library also incite the wrath of the Ku Klux Klan, the dangers of Lilliana’s past and present threaten to topple her before she’s learned to stand.

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