"1890, Oregon: recently widowed, Kate Blakely is struggling to make ends meet on her small farm as she tries to heal from the scars of her late husband's cruelty. When her handsome, brawny neighbor Zachariah McGovern almost dies while saving her four-year-old daughter from a near-fatal accident, Kate, despite being deeply wary of the man, brings him into her home to nurse him back to health. Gradually Kate realizes that underneath Zach's rough exterior is a gentle, loving soul who is fiercely protective of Kate and her daughter. But at much as Zach longs for Kate's love, she knows she can't open her heart without revealing her darkest secret"--P. [4] of cover.

Amid the mayhem of the American Civil War, a Virginia plantation wife is put on trial by her slaveholder husband. Iris Dunleavy is convicted of madness by a Virginia judge; it is the only reasonable explanation the court can see for her willful behavior, so she is sent to Sanibel Asylum to be restored to a good compliant wife. But Iris knows her husband is the true criminal; she is no lunatic, only guilty of disagreeing with him on Southern notions of justice, cruelty, and property. On a remote Florida island, a pompous superintendent heads this asylum populated by wonderful characters, including his self-diagnosing twelve-year-old son, a woman who swallows anything in sight, and Ambrose Weller, a Confederate soldier whose memories terrorize him into wild fits that can only be calmed by the color blue, but whose gentleness and dark eyes beckon to Iris. The institution calls itself modern, but Iris is skeptical of its methods, particularly the dreaded "water treatment." In this isolated place, she finds love with Ambrose. But can she take him with her if she escapes? Will there be anything for them to make a life from, back home? This novel is the story of a spirited woman, a wounded soldier, their impossible love, and the call of freedom.