Audience: Anyone interested in a historical novel, particularly the period known as "Bleeding Kansas" and the Civil War on the Western Front. Although basically a historical novel, the historical information it contains is, as far as is possible, accurate. There is some background information on both the Westwood and Connolly families, but basically the action starts with the Kansas-Nebraska Act of May 30, 1854. This opened the settlement of Kansas and Nebraska Territories to settlement. Whether these territories would become free or slave states would depend on the vote of their citizens. Among those who opposed slavery were Jeremiah Westwood and his two children, Paul and Dawn. They journeyed from southern Connecticut to southern Kansas. There were also Missourians, streaming across the border to try to make Kansas a slave state. Among those was a former outlaw from Missouri named Dennis Connolly. The remainder of the novel is composed mostly of the struggles of these two groups of settlers in their new homes and the blooming romance between Dawn Westwood and Dennis Connolly. The novel ends with the end of the Civil War with an epilogue some 24 years later.