Tess Gregory's brilliant career as a research scientist hides her longings for husband and child. Though deaf, she is a free spirit -- a woman full of life and love. She is struck down all too soon.<br>But for Tess, a new life begins at her death, in post-Civil War America. She is now Amarylis Rafferty, wife and mother of three -- and she can hear. Shocked and disoriented by her new surroundings, she is drawn into the savage heartache burdening the family, especially her husband, Jack, a man who fears himself capable of anything.