Three women must come to an acceptance and understanding of each other to survive the dark days before the Great Depression in 1924 South Carolina. Annie is the public face of the Cole family, a plantation owner who has had to come to terms with her failing crops and is still dealing with the loss of the plantations “free labor”. Retta was never a slave, but her parents were and although she isn’t owned by the Coles, she works for them. And Gertrude, at the mercy of an abusive husband, must find a way to keep her four children fed and safe. This story drew me right in, Spera does an amazing job of bringing a South still struggling to find its way more than fifty years after the Civil War.