Book excerpt: Shortly before the civil war began, Harm Carlyle, sixteen years old, and a fourteen-year-old half black girl named Essie had been raised together on a Georgia plantation. She was the love of his life, and they wanted to live together as man and wife but could not because of the prejudice of the time in the South. They set off on a journey west to find a home. They had no idea of the problems that they would face. In New Mexico, their love was severely tested when Harm saved the life of a young Indian boy, the son of the chief. As a reward, he was forced to take two Indian girls for wives. Also they were to lead them to a beautiful valley that was beyond their dreams, but their problems were not yet over.