It is 1924 and Torrance Flynn has decided that Mitchell Desolates may not be so bad after all. She has known him forever as the friend of her cousin, but now she is beginning to think that she might just fall in love with him. Everything changes, however, when Mitchell is drawn into a puzzling crime which Torrance's stepfather, Marshal Max Roundy, is trying to solve. It will alter Torrance's feelings toward Max, open up Mitchell's murky home-life to public scrutiny, and ultimately change the course of his future. The crime will also draw deputy marshal, Gideon McKenna into odds with his boss....

It is the dead of winter of 1924, and as gloomy a winter as the McKenna family has had in many a year. Amelia is faced with a devastating revelation after the death of her father, an accident proves to be nearly fatal, and Gideon has decided to swear off women altogether. But, just as the Family begins to settle into new, unaccustomed roles, Life proves true to form and sends the unexpected. If the unexpected proves to be for the best, however, remains to be seen.

it is 1929 and Carson McKenna is uneasy. Although he and the rest of the Family are celebrating another wedding, there is still a feeling that something ominous is coming. In this the ninth of the McKenna Chronicles, Stephen and Amelia are forced into another decision about their life together, Gideon is set to embrace a new chapter of his, while Carson will make a choice that could ravage his future. There is a new era looming, and the Family has no idea that the summer of 1929 is just the beginning.

It is 1932 and clashes are coming. While Carson is beginning a new life up at the Big House, Joe's unacceptable choice of a love interest will lead Dakota to an ambush on a deserted road. Max, also will be drawn into a conflict of an old score to settle when the telephone call comes that he has been dreading, and also longing for. He will move into a relationship that no one wants for him, not even Max himself. The McKennas and the country as a whole is in the middle of what will be known as the Great Depression. But their lives refuse to stand still, and they refuse to give up on each...

It is 1941 and what Jordan has been dreading has finally come to pass. What will happen over the next few years will change life as the McKennas, the town of Dooley, Georgia, and the world forever. From Pearl Harbor to Burma; from Toccoa, Georgia and the beginnings of the US Airborne Division to the French underground to Operation Husky in Sicily, the McKenna men will be scattered far and wide as they leave their homes and families to go to war. They are the warriors, but the wives, children, and parents left behind will have to be warriors, too. The events that unfold will impact the many...

It is 1946, the war is over and all seems right in the McKenna Family. But there is still evil in the world, even in the quiet hills of Southern Appalachia. It will come upon the town of Dooley, Georgia in a horridly familiar way, and bring the McKennas together in a unified front to rescue one of their own. There will also be questions raised of an event in another era, a change will come that will shake the Darcy branch of the Family, and even the Big House will encounter an upheaval. With the "1930 babies" now swaggering through their teens, no one should get too comfortable.