This young adult novel begins in the summer of 1916, with a St. Louis doctor taking a road trip with his children to visit elderly relatives in Illinois. It then flashes back to the time when those relatives were young. Twins Tilly and Noah Pruitt live in the tiny town of Grand Tower, Illinois, on the banks of the Mississippi River in the early days of the Civil War with their mother and their sister, Cass, who 'sees' things. When a mysterious woman and her servant arrive from New Orleans on the last boat before the river is blockaded, their lives are changed forever. Tilly's mother takes the pair in as boarders, the townspeople suspect them of being spies and the women of the town are upset at the attention their menfolk pay to the beautiful Delphine. Noah is smitten with Delphine even though she seems much older than his 15 years. After the war begins in earnest, Noah enlists and is sent to Cairo, IL where he and most of the other soldiers become seriously ill with dysentery. Tilly's mother sends Tilly and Delphine to find him and bring him home. The young women end up staying in Cairo, nursing the sick soldiers with the help of the former town doctor from Grand Tower. Eventually the truth about the "quadroon" background of Delphine and Calinda comes out, Noah is wounded in the Battle of Belmont, Missouri, and they all return home to Grand Tower. The last chapter returns to 1916 when the children from St. Louis learn more about their family's history.
This story takes place in the "Little Egypt" area of southern Illinois and most of the places mentioned are familiar ones to most St. Louisans. Towns as far north as Belleville are mentioned. Notes at the end give a brief history of the "free people of color" in New Orleans. Newbery award winning author, Peck, creates entertaining historical fiction through detailed, imaginative characters that are correct for the period.
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