Precocious 12-year-old Louisa Mae Cardinal lives in<BR />the hectic New York City of 1940 with her family.<BR />Then tragedy strikes--and Lou and her younger brother,<BR />Oz, must go with their invalid mother to live on their<BR />great-grandmother's farm in the Virginia mountains.<BR />Suddenly Lou finds herself coming of age in a new<BR />landscape, making her first true friend, and experiencing<BR />adventures tragic, comic, and audacious. But the forces<BR />of greed and justice are about to clash over her new<BR />home . . . and as their struggle is played out in a crowded<BR />Virginia courtroom, it will determine the future of two<BR />children, an entire town, and the mountains they love.