Its 1778, and the American Revolutionary War is three years old. In this fourth book of the award-winning Smithyman Saga, Sir Thomas Smithyman and his friends still consider themselves honor-bound to remain loyal. They continue their bitter civil war against former friends, neighbours and family for four more years, trying to regain their homes and land in what has become New York State. But Thomas and friends, his wife Nancy and their children, along with his stepmother, the fierce Mohawk Princess Laura Silverbirch and her war chief brother, Matthew, lose everything to the triumphant Patriots. Now refugees, they must fight betrayal by a thankless government, despair, hunger and isolation to reconstruct their lives and create a new place for themselves and their children in the northern wilderness.