This historical fiction novel is told in two voices: Sarah and Joseph.

Sarah Sutton and brothers Gabe and Joseph Elliott grew up together in 1860s rural Indianapolis. As teenagers, the brothers vie for Sarah s attention, but their attempts are disrupted when they both enlist in the Union army. Sarah also joins the war effort when she follows her father, a surgeon, to tend wounded soldiers in a regimental hospital.

At the close of the war, the childhood friends unite on the Sultana, a steamboat returning thousands of Union soldiers home from the South. Tragedy strikes when the boilers explode, and the fiery vessel sinks in the Mississippi River. Will the three survive?