dottie hicks

when the state of missouri becomes a major battleground at the beginning of the civil war, harriet hastings and her family are caught in the deadly crossfire between union and confederate factors seeking to control the state. missouri falls into federal hands. when her husband, confederate captain frank hastings, leaves to fight with general sterling price's confederate forces, the hastings' home becomes a target of yankee surveillance and unscrupulous behavior. left without male support and protection except for one negro field hand, harriet leans heavily on the strong steadfast faith of her aged black mammy, zillah, the only real mother she has ever known. at war's end she doesn't know if her husband is dead or alive. she then receives a letter and a crudely drawn map from him directing her to bring the children to ft.smith, arkansas where he promises to meet them. in a converted cotton wagon drawn by two emaciated oxen, harriet embarks on her long journey through the ozarks where she encounters painful and seemingly insurmountable obstacles; the most devastating being the death of old zillah.with her passing, harriet's bedrock of stability crumbles. overwhelming grief threatens to destroy her. like a whisper on the wind, an unexpected answer comes to the distraught woman one evening as she totters dangerously atop a high narrow cliff over looking the dark impenetrable ozarks.it is the voice of old zillah's god assuring her that he has her in the hollow of his hands. harriet's journey through the ozark wilderness, rather than devouring her, proves to be the emotional elixir that brings healing to the young wife and mother as she journeys toward her husband and home.