Although Lizzie Baker wants nothing more than to return to her time 110 years in the future, she remains stuck on Brown Mountain, NC, during the time of the Civil War - the bloodiest conflict in American history.

An abolitionist, Lizzie lives in a state that has seceded from the Union and finds herself, as a woman of that era, unable to protect slaves being mistreated by their plantation owners, as well as women who suffer at the hands of their husbands, without rights or laws to protect them.

Lizzie continues to learn herbal healing from the Collins sisters while helping her beau Josh transport runaway slaves to safety via the Underground Railroad. With the aid of her best friend Abbie, she begins a relief agency to send supplies to the army while running a medical clinic treating injured soldiers returning home.

After she helps deserters on their way to East Tennessee, she falls under suspicion of the Home Guard, an agency formed to track down deserters, draft dodgers, and escaped prisoners. If that isn’t bad enough, there’s always danger from bushwhackers who raid the mountain, looking for food and arms.

When Josh decides to join the war effort, Lizzie and Abbie accompany him to the bloodiest battle of the war - the Battle of Gettysburg. There, she and Abbie work as nurses in a field hospital until they find themselves retreating with the wounded and dying under General Robert E. Lee’s command.

After Brown Mountain is raided by the Union, Lizzie becomes frantic to return to the future with Josh, who has agreed to accompany her, and begins searching in earnest for the light that transported her from 1969 to 1859.

On the anniversary of her fifth year on Brown Mountain, Lizzie, Abbie, and Josh, while being pursued by bushwhackers, encounter a light that Lizzie thinks is hers. But when the light takes Abbie and begins to draw Lizzie in, she realizes it’s not the right one.

Will Josh be able to save Lizzie and Abbie before the raiders capture him, or will their fate be linked together as they go through the light?