In the fall of 1863, the Union army is in control of the Mississippi River. Much of Louisiana, including New Orleans and Baton Rouge, is occupied. The Confederate army is retreating toward Texas, and being replaced by Red Legs, irregulars commanded by a maniacal figure, and enslaved men and women are beginning to glimpse freedom. When Hannah Laveau, an enslaved woman working on the Lufkin plantation, is accused of murder, she goes on the run with...

Runaway slave Liz Spocott, wounded during capture by notorious slave trader Patty Cannon, meets an ancient nameless woman in Cannon's prison attic who teaches her "the Code," a cryptic means of communication by which runaways reach freedom, and when she escapes once again, Liz uses the code, as well as visions of the future, to help her on her way north.

Louisa May Alcott has problems--her mother is taking a job over a hundred miles away to earn some money, leaving to it to Louisa to care for the family, her father refuses to work for money, a fugitive slave is seeking refuge in their house, and a slave catcher has been murdered, making the Underground Railroad much more dangerous.

Margaret Ashworth, head of the Marietta Historical Society, disappeared after sharing an old Civil-War era newspaper clipping about a pouch of gold that went missing. As the Inn Crown try to help Margaret's family figure out where she could be, LuAnn finds clues to the gold's location. Meanwhile, a former student of LuAnn's is in town researching the Castle, a local historical site undergoing renovation. But Ashley' strange behavior makes LuAnn wonder...

In the Vermont spring of 1853, Bell's Star, a Morgan horse, and his owner Katie rescue a runaway slave and try to outwit the slave catchers in order to help her to freedom.

"It's 1863, and Thomas and his little sister, Birdie, have fled the farm where they were born and raised as slaves. Following the North Star, looking for freedom, they soon cross paths with a Union soldier. Everything changes: Corporal Henry Green brings Thomas and Birdie back to his regiment, and suddenly it feels like they've found a new home. Best of all, they don't have to find their way north alone--they're marching with the army. But then orders...