When fifteen-year-old Rachel is forced to move to Boston in 1872, she is furious. She is also lonely, for her beloved horse, Peaches, has been sold. But Rachel soon finds a horse that needs her, and needs her desperately: The Governor's Girl, a famous firehorse, has been badly burned. Rachel gets permission to care for the Girl in a stable behind her house. <P> As she cares for the injured horse,Rachel dreams about becoming a veterinarian. But her father, a newspaperman, has very definite ideas about where women belong: only in the home. Father also has definite ideas about Boston's inadequate firefighting equipment, as an outbreak of suspicious fires erupts. To make things worse, horses everywhere begin falling ill -- and it is horses that power the city's fire engines. Another spark might send the whole city up in flames. <P> With cinematic vividness, Diane Lee Wilson brings the very real Great Boston Fire to life in this exciting and inspiring story of a strong-minded girl determined to decide her own future.