The Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Light in the Forest and The Awakening Land plumbs his own past to deliver a powerful novel of memory, family, forgiveness, and redemption. Nearing the end of his life, world-renowned novelist John Donner makes a final pilgrimage back to a childhood home that no longer exists. The coal mining community of Unionville, PA, now sits at the bottom of a lake created by a new hydroelectric dam on the Kronos River....

The Luckett family, pioneers from Pennsylvania, face the hardships and unknown perils of America's forest wilderness during their journey westward.

Continues the saga of Sayward Luckett Wheeler, who marries the educated New Englander, Portious, and bears him eight children. As pioneer, wife, and mother, she struggles to create a home in the wilderness for her family.